Chromebook shipments reportedly dropped by more than 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, Digitimes Research claims.

The industry watcher says in the fourth quarter of 2014 Chromebook shipments — not consumer sales — dropped 20 percent over the previous quarter.

Digitimes Research suggests that demand for Microsoft’s low-cost ‘Windows 8.1 with Bing’ devices may have played a part, though as HP, makers of the well marketed ‘HP Stream 11’ device, saw its own notebook shipments drop 45% month-on-month in January of this year, that’s not an entirely clear-cut answer.

Confused? You might be. Earlier this month the company suggested that Microsoft’s Windows 10 strategy would “not be able to stop Chromebooks’ aggressive penetration” in the notebook sector over the coming year.

Education shipments of Chromebooks by Acer and Samsung ‘slid substantially’ in the fourth quarter, according to the Taiwanese outfit’s research. Not too surprising given that more than 1 million Chromebooks were shipped to the K–12 education market in the US during the third quarter of 2014 alone!

On a more positive note, other leading industry analysts are predicting that Chromebooks will see a “boost” in shipments during 2015 as they continue to make big strides in the US education market.

New Chromebooks and Chrome devices are expected to be released throughout this year, helping to add variety and differentiation to an increasingly same-y product line up.