Google says Chromebooks market share grew at least 10% in the past year in Australia

The BETT (formerly the British Educational Training and Technology show) education trade show currently taking place in the UK, Google has this week unveiled some statistics on the latest market share for Chromebooks, with market share in Australia growing by 10%.

In their post last year, Google announced that Chromebooks in Australia during 2017 enjoyed a respectable market share of between 20%-30% in Australia. This number has grown in 2018 with market share sitting at between 30-40% according to the latest info from Google.

According to Google, the increase in market share in Australia has been thanks to their continued adoption in classrooms around the country. In Canberra, all secondary students were provided with Chromebooks last year according to the post from Director, International Google for Education John Vamvakitis.

Access to new Chromebooks, at least for students, will expand in 2019 with HP announcing three new education focused Chromebooks this week, all of which are heading to Australia. Acer too announced new Chromebooks at BETT, though ACER has yet to unveil their plans for launching the new Acer Chromebook 512 and Chromebook Spin 512 in Australia have yet to be announced.

At retail it’s still possible to find new Chromebooks, with most retailers with existing relationships with the vendors able to order them for you if you ask. Some retailers such as Officeworks have even had a couple in stock when we’ve been in-store. There’s no word on Google ever bringing their high-end Pixelbook or Pixel Slate to Australia, but maybe if we crack the 50% mark next year they may re-consider.

There’s a lot happening with Chromebooks for education with improving hardware including now AMD processors, and touch screens and stylus which help students to create content or capture it for study getting a lot more common. The integration of Android apps, and Google’s Classroom platform for teachers and students, as well as easy device management for IT admins has led to the platforms being adopted by many schools.

The growth in Australia is promising, but we’d still like to see those premium devices launched here. With numbers growing steadily we have our fingers crossed for next year.