The spike in demand was a matter of necessity, Canalys said. With the second wave of COVID-19 triggering new lockdowns and more distance education, schools and students often had little choice but to issue or need laptops. Chromebooks are both inexpensive and relatively easy to maintain, making them easier choices than conventional laptops for many schools and some businesses.
Tablets also enjoyed a spike in demand, not nearly as great. Deliveries grew 28 percent in 2020, with Apple, Samsung and Lenovo seeing the greatest demand. Here the explanation is more complicated. While education and work played a major role, pure content consumption also played a major role. If you’re stuck at home, you’re more likely to want a device that can help you through a TV marathon or surf the web.
Canalys also noted that tablet profits were modest in part because the market was already so big. About 160.6 million tablets shipped in 2020, or five times the volume of Chromebooks. Google’s platform may be very important to some audiences, but it is tablets that have the highest number of eyeballs.