Google’s Chromebooks have replaced Apple’s iPads as the most popular devices in the schools of the United States, according to a report cited by the Forbes magazine. According to the data originally published by the Financial Times, Google has shipped 715,500 of its low cost Chromebook laptops to the schools of the United States, while Apple has only delivered 702,000 iPads in the third quarter of this year.
The iPad is the product with the fastest growth in the history of the Cupertino-based manufacturer, but the growth of its sales has slowed down lately – maybe because of the release of several large screen smartphone models, reducing the need for tablet computers. Besides, Google is sweetening the deal for its Chromebooks with the addition of its free Google Apps for Education Suite to them. Once teachers and students get used to working in the cloud instead of their local hard drives or other storage options, Chromebooks become an obvious choice. The app suite has competitors like Microsoft’s Office 365 suite, free for the students but not for the school – which, again, makes Google’s apps suite much more appealing.
Chromebooks are also attractive to schools because of their price point. After educational discounts Google sells its Chromebooks to schools for the price of $199, while Apple’s 2013 iPad sells for $379. Microsoft tries to compete with Google’s product with its $199 Stream netbook built in collaboration with HP – it remains to be seen how successful this device becomes in the schools of the United States. Another feature – or the lack of it – makes the iPad less appealing for the childen: it has no physical keyboard. As children get older and tend to type for longer periods of time, which makes Chromebooks a better choice than any tablet. Tablet computers are a perfect choice for media consumption and reading, but when it comes to typing they fail in front of even the smallest notebook.