The PC market is contracting after the surge of mobile devices in recent years has made desktop and even notebook computers look expensive and old-fashioned. In addition to ultramobile notebooks, one of the only PC categories still growing is, oddly enough, Chromebooks. Now it seems that larger PC manufacturers will be doubling down on Chrome OS with new all-in-one PCs.
A new DigiTimes report hold that both Samsung and HP will be launching all-in-one PCs that run on Chrome OS sometime in 2014. LG has already announced a Chrome OS all-in-one, the Chromebase.
The report’s unnamed “Taiwan-based supply chain makers” claim that Samsung will be launching three Chrome OS devices this year, including the all-in-one. That total does not include the two new Chromebooks that Samsung unveiled earlier this month.
DigiTimes’ sources claim that the rise of Chrome OS is now worrying Microsoft, which has been struggling to raise adoption rate for its Windows 8 OS. The sources point out that Windows education market share has fallen to under 30% while Chrome OS education market share has risen to almost 20%. The low cost of Chrome OS devices are influencing even the enterprise market, where Chrome OS is also steadily increasing its market share.
The prediction of new all-in-one Chrome OS devices is in-line with predictions early this year that PC manufacturers will be leaning on Chromebooks to prop up their 2014 shipment numbers. The devices led the notebook segment during 2013 and consumers looking for easy-to-use, highly mobile notebooks at low prices appear to be flocking to Chrome OS over Windows 8-based devices.
Image via HP