Dive Brief:
- A new report from Futuresource Consulting shows Chromebooks continuing to dominate K-12 purchasing nationally, saying that the affordable devices' capturing of 51% of the market share came as many districts were also implementing online assessments.
- The devices aren’t as popular in other countries, with Chromebooks representing 41% of sales in Canada, 9% in Finland, 9% in the United Kingdom, and 1% in India, eSchool News reports.
- According to the report, Microsoft is planning to offer the Chromebook some competition in the wake of its new collaboration with Lightspeed, ultimately offering similarly low-cost and user-friendly devices to support the growth of 1:1 classroom tech initiatives.
Dive Insight:
The Google-powered Chromebooks have dominated the K-12 market for some time now, and even concerns and lawsuits around student privacy have been unable to halt their growth. Between April and June of 2015, the devices made up “49% of the 3.9 million devices purchased for K-12 overall,” and that number is now a 51% majority.
The boom is largely attributed to a cheap sticker price (as low as $149), longevity, Google’s support network, educator training, and Google Apps for Education access. The latter's integration has been credited with easing the transition of teachers and students to a new system.
