Chromebooks
are getting the K-12 Treatment in the US of A as American high Schools and
Colleges seem set to become the Chromebook’s largest Customer.
This
as analyst IDC (International Data Corporation) has announced that the Google Chromebook
had captured 25% of the Education Market with the sale of some 715,500 in the
Third Quarter of 2014 as stated in the article “Chromebooks
outsell iPads – in education, at least”, published December 1, 2014 By Matt
Smith, DigitalTrends.
They've
just edged out the apple iPad, which up until now has sold some 702,000 iPads over
the same period. For those following this development, this is the same news
Google themselves excitedly trumpeted their popularity within the U.S. K-12
School system in an official Blog post entitled “With
Chromebooks, students find new ways to learn”, published Monday, November
10, 2014, Google Blog.
Google Chromebooks
popular with U.S. K-12 - IDC Stats tell of Rise of the Avengers of Cloud
Computing
According
to IDC’s Rajani Singh in the article “Google
proudly trumpets Chromebook’s domination in American schools”, published
November 11, 2014 By Adrian Diaconescu, DigitalTrends,
the Google Chromebook is hot in the education sector:
1. 713,000
Google Chromebooks sold in the Third Quarter of 2014
2. 250,000
Google Chromebooks per month from July and September 2014
Google
makes the Cloud-based OS, with Laptop makers gladly making the Hardware because
of their extremely fast sale time that slowly propelling them towards 1%
marketshare of the PC market by 2017 as I’d predicted in my blog article
entitled “Chromebooks
Sales to Triple by 2017 – How Rapid Sales Heaven for PC Makers means Apple iPad
and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 under attack”.
That's
an impressive projection for the next three (3) years considering that this
market was non-existent three (3) years ago when Google Chromebooks came out in
2011 after the launch of the first Cr-48 Chromebooks back in 2010 as noted in my
blog article
entitled “Google
Chrome OS and Open Source - Star Wars A New Hope”.
They're
the most popular Computer in the Laptop section on Amazon and now by the stats
offered by Google, the most popular in the K-12 Education System:
1. 50,000
Google Chromebooks sold to the K-12 Districts in Montgomery County, MD
2. 32,000
Google Chromebooks sold to the K-12 Districts in Charlotte-Mecklenberg, NC
3. 26,000
Google Chromebooks sold to the K-12 Districts in Cherry Creek, CO
When
broken down by Laptop Manufacturer, the stats make it clear who's really
benefitting from U.S. K-12:
1. 240,000
Google Chromebooks sold by Acer
2. 174,000
Google Chromebooks sold by Samsung
3. 127,000
Google Chromebooks sold by HP
Impressive
numbers for the Third Quarter of 2014 that are set to get better in the Fourth
Quarter of 2014, especially in the week before Christmas 2014!
Especially
as this Christmas, they’re offering 1TB Free Google Drive with the purchase of
every Google Chromebook starting on Black Friday and onwards to Christmas 2014
as reported in the article “Google
gets into the giving spirit, offers 1TB of Drive with every Chromebook”,
published November 22, 2014 By Matt Smith, DigitalTrends.
Google Chomebooks are
more suited to Education - TIS Project a success in Jamaica albeit Tablets need
Keyboard and Mouse
Aside
from the price, which is usually in the US$199 to US$399 range, hey also have
performance rivaling most high-end laptops as exemplified by the US$299 Acer Chromebook
13 by Acer that's got a Nvidia K1 Processor under the hood as reported in my blog article
entitled “US$299
Acer Chromebook 13 by Acer - How Nvidia K1 Processor Under the Hood means that
Cloud Gaming on the Horizon by 2017”.
It's
also well suited to American K-12 School System, many of which have their Wi-Fi
Internet powered by Broadband Internet from AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS
and possible even Google Fiber as noted in my blog article
entitled “Gig.U
Third Annual Report - Google Fiber's American Gigabit Internet Revolution as
Jamaica starts Broadband Internet Revolution”.
Touch-screen
tablets may be the in-thing with Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) in the K-12 system,
but most Tablets are distracting, with users prime to using them for playing
games and just plain surfing the internet as noted by parent and write for
Forbes Magazine Anthony Wing Kosner in his article “Google
Unseats Apple In U.S. Classrooms As Chromebooks Beat iPads”, published
12/01/2014 @ 1:04AM by Anthony Wing Kosner, Forbes.
Even
here in Jamaica, we’re had issues with our TIS (Tablet in schools) program
that's been rolling out across some thirty (30) Primary and High Schools in
Jamaica, the most recent being that students have been using have been using
them to access Social Media Websites.
Some
students have even bypasssed the CMS (Content Management System) put in place
by GeoTechVision Enterprises Limited
as I'd reported in my blog article
entitled ”Male
Student hacks TIS Project Tablet as Distribution Expands - Tablets Problems
require Creative Jamaican solutions to deliver Lessons to the Learners We Teach”.
With
success being recorded in getting boys interested and engaged in the Classroom
and Girls now being introduced to ITC (Information Technology and Computing) at
this level as noted in my blog article
entitled “TIS
Project a Success with Boys - JA$9000 for Subsidized Tablets as TIS Project
replaces 600,000 Students School Books with e-books come September 2015”, the
TIS Project Test phase will end with a resounding success and September 2015
will mark the official roll out across all High Schools in Jamaica.
The
TIS Project Tablets come with a Case but thus far I’ve not seen any with
keyboards. This suggests that parents will have to buy one as well as Bluetooth
mice to pair with the Tablets come September 2015.
At
that time, the start of the 2015-2016 School Term, Tablets will be packing e-books, Apps and Web
Apps choc full of Learning Content from Book Publisher’s making the purchase of
heavy Textbooks and oversized knapsacks as noted in my blog article
entitled “JA$114
million spent on Content for TIS Project Tablets - JA$76 million on Math,
English and Science Content by January 2015 to stop Teachers Padding Book-lists
for Commissions”.
Competition on the
horizon from Microsoft - Apple iPad is for Corporate Warriors but Competition
is coming
The
Google Chromebooks for the K-12 System come with Keyboards and Trackpad, making
them distraction-free learning tools.
Their
success in U.S. K-12 School Districts will not go unnoticed by their
competition; already Microsoft has teamed up with HP to introduce cheaper
US$200 HP Stream Laptops that also have complementary 1TB OneDrive cloud
Storage thrown in as noted in my blog article
entitled “US$200
HP Stream Netbooks and Tablets – Microsoft floating Windows 8.1 on Free 1TB
Microsoft OneDrive Cloud against Google's Chromebooks”.
Apple
might have something in the wings, such as the much rumoured larger 12.9"
Tablets as mentioned in the article “The
megapad is coming: New details reveal specs of 12.2inch ‘iPad Air Plus’ set for
release next year”, published 1 December 2014 19:41 GMT By VICTORIA
WOOLLASTON and MARK PRIGG, The Daily Mail
UK.
Possibly
coming with a Case that doubles as a keyboard as I’d long predicted for this
gigantic Apple iPad as noted in my blog article
entitled “Microsoft
launches Surface Pro 3 - Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 puts Kibosh on Tablets with
Apple having to make a larger Keyboard iPad”!
With
power consumption set to get lower, once the Laptop maker adopt the usage of
the Intel Core M Processor across their product ranges as predicted in my blog article
entitled “Intel
Core M Processor codenamed Broadwell – How Fanless, Smaller and Thinner proves
that If Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade”, look out for Chromebooks and
their competition becoming more power-efficient as well, possibly even solar
powered.
For
now, Google has score a decisive victory in their latest Beachhead, that being
the U.S. K-12 Battleground! That free 1TB makes buying a Google Chromebook all
the more enticing this Christmas 2014!
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