WINDOW TO THE WORLD: Google Chromebooks may rule the K-12 device market in the U.S., accounting for half of the 10.5 million devices sold in the States in 2015. But they’re still guppies in the global pond. The latest numbers from Futuresource Consulting finds that Microsoft Windows machines captured 43 percent of the 29.6 million K-12 devices shipped across the world last year—more than double what Chromebooks (20 percent) and Android devices (18 percent) have been able to gain.
Across all industries, Windows “remained the leading operating system globally….increasing its market share from 47 percent in 2014 to 55 percent in 2015,” according to Futuresource. Outside the U.S., Chromebooks made up less than three percent of total market share. The report offers this as a reason:
In emerging markets, connectivity is fragmented and in most cases is not adequate enough to provide the user experience required on the platform, although improvements are being made to its offline capabilities.
Futuresource’s numbers also suggest Apple is steadily losing ground, making up just 4 and 6 percent of K-12 devices sold in the global and US market, respectively. It expects those numbers to improve, however, as Apple has been focusing on improving its device management tools.
