As worldwide tablet shipments grow, Chromebooks face a different reality

When the world went online because of the pandemic, tablet and Chromebook makers saw a boost in demand due to virtual schooling and work. Now that the pandemic is in the rearview mirror for many, the demand for tablets and Chromebooks is affected by the aftermath. 

Tablet shipments experienced 0.15% growth, reaching 40.5 million unit shipments during the second quarter of 2022, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report. Tablets experienced better-than-expected shipments in the quarter due to smoother deployments into education projects and several promotional sales, says IDC. 

Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, says that the tablet continues to see high demand because it is a cheaper alternative to a PC.

Chromebooks sales, however, continued to decline, with year-over-year shipment growth down 51.4% and only 6 million units shipped during Q2 2022. The decline was expected due to inventory buildup and changes in education sector demand, says IDC. 

Despite seeing a sharp decline in shipments, Chromebook shipment volumes are still above pre-pandemic levels. Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, says that the pandemic still brought positive change to the Chromebook market. 

"The need for remote learning accelerated schools' plans to reach a 1:1 ratio for PCs to students and this ratio will likely continue to hold in the future and even if PC shipments decline in other categories, Chrome will continue at these elevated levels," Ubrani said in a statement. 

SEE: PC shipments are slowing, but they're not running out of steam | ZDNet