IDC Stats say Google Chromebooks with 1 TB Free Google Drive dominates U.S. K-12 School System in 2015

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”.

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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!