Chromebooks have been on the rise lately. We reported not too long ago about how Chromebooks outsold the iPad in school and classroom adoption. And now we have the typical Christmas and holiday sales record-setters thanks to Amazon. Well, that and some Chromecast news too. Regardless, let’s see those standings.
Amazon put out a press release the day after Christmas highlighting how well it had done this year being the center of attention for shoppers, while avoiding the obvious and deserved Fire Phone jabs. The retail giant also laid out some bullet points for Amazon Best-Sellers, and lo and behold, there’s Google and some of its tech, namely Chromebooks. In the category of ‘computers’, we have the top three spots being Chrome-powered laptops. In third is the Exynos-powered HP 11, the second generation, in snow white. Second place goes to the computer I’m typing on (not exactly, but still), the Asus C300 in 2GB RAM and 16GB storage configuration. First place, selling in computers from the Amazon website was the Acer C720 with 2GB of RAM and an 11.6-inch display. The holidays held what many of us probably assumed, that Chrome OS is good enough to get people onto it and great enough to keep them coming back.
Chromebooks, for those unaware (and that number is likely very small and shrinking as time passes and 2015 begins), are simple laptops that run a modified version of Chrome, the web browser, and Linux combined to be a fully-functioning OS. It has all the features of a normal laptop, with a pair or more of USB ports, maybe an SD card reader, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and sometimes a touchscreen. The big bonuses of Chromebooks over their siblings running Windows are that the battery life is better, having only to keep, basically, the web browser powered on and running and that the devices don’t need superior specifications to run a web browser, so since specs can be lower, so can the price. Bargain and efficiency.
Now to the Chromecast. Google’s Chromecast, came second in sales over the holidays, only falling behind Amazon’s own Fire TV Stick, which functions like a Roku with a remote and stick configuration, and Amazon’s media services. Chromecast has seen a load of offers and deals for owners new and veteran going into the season which might have helped.
And on top of all those Google-y things, Amazon itself apparently garnered even more supporters who decided to cash in on the trial of Amazon Prime for the holiday shipping. Previously, we reported on how the company had apparently gathered 10 million more customers, and that number pops up again. According to Amazon, 10 million new people tried Prime this holiday season, meaning that come January 2015 people will either be dropping out or paying up for the continued membership. Amazon, you keep doing you, we’ll wait to see how the Fire Phone 2 in 2016 does, then get back to you. Until then, please let Chromecast users stream their Prime content from your servers. It’s not like they’re pirating it after all.
Regardless, the holidays went great for Google and its partner companies in the realm of casting and books, so it should be a great year to come, given the nearness of CES 2015 as well as some of the rumored new Chrome OS hardware. Did you get any of the top-bought Google and Chrome tech this season? If not and you already had one or two, which do you think should have been in the top selling spots? If you got a Chromecast, what have you been casting since you unwrapped it? Let us know down below.