Popularity of Chromebooks has dramatically increased in the last couple of years as Google has integrated the Play Store and its millions of Android apps into Chrome OS. In 2019, almost fifty new Chromebooks hit the market, compared to just over a hundred between 2011 and 2018. According to The NPD Group that tracks US retail sales, overall sales of laptops were down 6.1% while Chrombook sales grew 22% year over year.

A number of factors are contributing to growth in sales. For starters, the quality of hardware has started matching high-end laptops with sleek aluminum cases, high-res touchscreens and competitive specs. Expansion into the enterprise space is largely to thank. And Chromebooks continue to be very popular in education due to versatility, simplicity and price. This combination of improved hardware and affordability has helped grow the consumer segment as well, but the expanded integration of Android apps seems to be the tipping point. In 2018 Black Friday sales, one in every three laptops was a Chromebook.

Android apps on Chrome OS didn’t have a great start with limited availability on select hardware and less than stellar performance. But in the three plus years since the first Chromebooks got the Play Store, Android apps have proven to be invaluable to the user experience, expanding functionality well beyond the limitations of Chrome OS. This has helped level the playing field with Windows and macOS for general consumers. Developers are also benefiting from better GPU support and full support for Android Studio. In addition, developers will soon be able to deploy Android apps directly on Chrome OS, allowing development and testing to occur within the same OS.

source: Chrome Unboxed