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I think you are forgetting a gigantic market that is worth billions upon billions of government funded cheese: schools. Chromebooks have the education market do

by alexb_ 5y ago

I think you are forgetting a gigantic market that is worth billions upon billions of government funded cheese: schools. Chromebooks have the education market down. Damn near every single school that wants to upgrade its tech is getting a chromebook. Schools need google docs. Schools need a low cost machine so that they can buy a thousand of them. Schools need something incredibly locked down. Schools are a source of income that is not only great but also gets people used to using google products as that is all they have learned (you ever wonder why Adobe and Microsoft work so closely with education?). To say that chromebooks have an "unimportant" market share is just flat out wrong.

KptMarchewa 5y ago
I think you forget that only US schools buy their students computers.
- dagw 5y ago
  That isn't true. I know of many schools in Norway and Sweden that buy iPads or Chromebooks for their students. Although it is admittedly not universal
  - KptMarchewa 5y ago
    Probably Switzerland does that too. That's still very small fraction of the whole world.
Breza 5y ago
This is an important point. The experience that people have as children defines their understanding of technology to some extent. Getting children used to your hardware and software is a major investment in the future. And lucrative school contracts are an investment in now.
- tharne 5y ago
  > Getting children used to your hardware and software is a major investment in the future. I disagree. Apple tried this in the 1980's in the U.S. It was a disaster, no one bought Apple computers for home use and the company almost went under. Apple didn't come back to life until they came out with the iPod. It didn't hurt that they later got a booster when MS released the sh*tshow know as windows 8.
HWR_14 5y ago
I'm pretty sure the school market is not terribly lucrative. I thought that Chromebooks were dumped on schools to try to build momentum and familiarity in children. So when they grew up they would be Google Docs / Chromebook users.
datavirtue 5y ago
Closed source in education is unethical. Full stop. We can argue about the rest of the world.

by alexb_ 5y ago

KptMarchewa 5y ago

I think you forget that only US schools buy their students computers.

dagw 5y ago
That isn't true. I know of many schools in Norway and Sweden that buy iPads or Chromebooks for their students. Although it is admittedly not universal
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  Probably Switzerland does that too. That's still very small fraction of the whole world.

Breza 5y ago

This is an important point. The experience that people have as children defines their understanding of technology to some extent. Getting children used to your hardware and software is a major investment in the future. And lucrative school contracts are an investment in now.

tharne 5y ago
> Getting children used to your hardware and software is a major investment in the future. I disagree. Apple tried this in the 1980's in the U.S. It was a disaster, no one bought Apple computers for home use and the company almost went under. Apple didn't come back to life until they came out with the iPod. It didn't hurt that they later got a booster when MS released the sh*tshow know as windows 8.

HWR_14 5y ago

I'm pretty sure the school market is not terribly lucrative. I thought that Chromebooks were dumped on schools to try to build momentum and familiarity in children. So when they grew up they would be Google Docs / Chromebook users.

datavirtue 5y ago

Closed source in education is unethical. Full stop. We can argue about the rest of the world.