It doesn’t take a research team to see the plain and simple fact that Chromebooks are becoming more popular with consumers. In 2019 alone, we’ve seen nearly fifty Chrome devices hit the market and a ton more on the way in the coming months. Compare that to just over one hundred models in the span of seven years between 2011 and 2018. That’s some serious growth.

According to the latest report from The NPD Group that tracks retail sales in the U.S., consumers are buying into the Chrome OS ecosystem at an accelerated pace. In fact, overall sales of non-Chrome OS notebooks were down 6.1% while Chromebooks enjoyed a 22% YoY growth spurt.

Sep. 2018 – Aug. 2019 Sales: The NPD Group

There are a number of contributing factors that have helped catapult Chromebooks ahead of the competition. Google’s push to expand Chrome OS into the enterprise sector has led to OEMs developing more high-end devices while the education sector continues to play a major part in the growing popularity of Chromebooks. The consumer market, however, has been the area where Chrome OS has struggled in the past to have any major impact. The past 18 months have proven to be very lucrative in that area as Black Friday sales in 2018 led to one in every three laptops sold being that of the Chromebook variety.

A portion of the credit for Chromebooks growing popularity, despite its rocky start, can be attributed to the addition of Android apps to Chrome OS. It has been three and a half years since Google first announced that they would bring the Play Store to Chrome OS. Since that time, adoption has been a bit of a rollercoaster as devices slowly gained access to Android apps. Despite a somewhat dismal launch, Google has remained committed to the project and they have pushed forward by encouraging app developers to create for the larger screens found on Chromebooks and tablets. It appears that their unwavering dedication has apparently paid off.

According to internal data from Google, engaged Android usage on Chrome OS has increased by 4X over the past year. This is an indicator that consumers are interested in using their favorite apps on their Chromebooks and that developers have been working hard to make that experience better. Google’s commitment continues to reflect on the way Android apps are developed, as well. GPU support, full support for Android Studio and the upcoming ability to deploy developed Android apps directly on Chrome OS will make it easier than ever for devs to create and test all inside the same operating system.

We have more exciting news to share from Android developers later this week but you can read more about what’s new with Android on Chrome OS at the official developer’s blog here.

Shop Chromebooks on Amazon