Analytics firm IDC recently released sales figures revealing that Google Chromebooks are in fact outselling the Apple MacBooks in the United States.
"Chrome OS overtook Mac OS in the US in terms of shipments for the first time in 1Q16," IDC told The Verge. "Chromebooks are still largely a US K-12 story."
Many market experts believe that this shows that consumers are slowly turning their attention towards simple affordable devices rather than highly sophisticated but pricey ones. Although the Android platform and the search engine service have overshadowed some of Google's other initiatives, the trimmed-down Chrome OS is in fact powering around two million laptops sold in the US within the first quarter of 2015 according to latest statistics. At the same period, Apple was able to sell 1.76 million MacBooks.
Chrome OS is the operating system that powers the Google Chromebook line of devices. A handful of major tech manufacturers have in fact enjoyed the current success of Google's line of laptops. These companies include HP, Lenovo, and Dell.
Chrome OS was initially launched in 2009 and had raised some eyebrows since it ditches the more conventional Windows or Mac platform. Instead, Google decided to strip down Chrome OS in such a way that it relies most of its function on the web browser and just a minimal requirement for storage.
Instead of installing traditional resource-demanding software, Google encourages users to use web-based applications like Google Photos and Google Docs as an alternative to software suites like the Microsoft Office.
Google's recent milestone is a wakeup call for the PC manufacturers especially in this time when sales are slowly dwindling. IDC predicts that while some users want to transition back to Windows 10, Chromebook sales will continue to dominate the low-cost laptop market
Despite its current success, Chrome OS started at a snail's pace when it was launched in 2011. The operating system only managed to take ahold of just 400,000 laptops sold in the US within the first 11 months of its release.
According to The Guardian, the success of Chrome OS can be attributed to the demands of the education market where the low price of Chromebooks is an immediate selling point. Moreover, users of Chromebooks saw its limitations as positive rather than a hurdle.
Here is a video showing how Google is transforming a Chromebook into a laptop running on the Android operating system.