Chromebook demand surges in Q2 as HP leads the pack

Despite impressive figures, the analyst said Chromebooks are seeing some slowdown from the boom in preceding quarters

Chromebooks and tablets continued to have a stellar Q2 despite coming up against tough comparisons from previous impressive quarters.

According to data from analyst IDC, Chromebook shipments grew 68.6 per cent year on year with volumes reaching 12.3 million units.

The research firm adds that, while this wasn't a record quarter for Chromebooks, it wasn't far off the prior two quarters, which shattered previous highs.

The tablet segment showed more modest growth of 4.2 per cent year over year with shipments totaling 40.5 million units.

However, IDC claims that despite positive results during the quarter, both categories are experiencing some slowdown from the boom in the preceding quarters.

For Chromebooks, while still in high demand and even on backlog for many education deals, vendors have started prioritising higher margin Windows laptops given the on-going component shortages.

For tablets some of this applies, but there is also a bigger concern that consumer demand around tablets will slow much faster than Chromebooks or even the broader PC market.

"Opportunities in the education market are still ample for both tablets and chromebooks. Online learning has gained rapid traction and has pushed forward the digital revolution in the learning space," said senior research analyst with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, Anuroopa Nataraj.

"While there isn't a single solution globally, many emerging markets continue to ramp up use of Android tablets while schools in some developed markets like the US and Canada lean more toward chromebooks.

"That said, there has also been a recent uprising of chromebooks in areas of Europe, as well as a few Asian countries as schools start opening up to platform change."

Leading tablet and Chromebook vendors

HP Inc (4.3 million units shipped) and Lenovo (2.6 million units shipped) topped the leaderboard for Chromebook vendors, with the former jumping 115.7 per cent on the previous quarter.

Despite placing fifth, Samsung (0.9 million units shipped) saw the largest year on year growth of 179.2 per cent.

On the tablet side, Apple (21.9 million units shipped) and Samsung (8 million units shipped) lead the pack.