Worldwide Chromebook sales set to reach 7.3 million units in 2015: Gartner

Market research firm Gartner estimated 7.3 million Chromebooks would be sold this year, helped mainly by demand from the education industry. Chromebooks are computers powered by Google’s Chrome Operating System, designed to be used primarily online. Gartner said its sales estimate was an increase of 27 percent from 2014, when the education industry accounted for 72 percent of sales. Despite an interest about Chromebooks among small and medium businesses, demand from businesses was yet to pick up, Gartner said. North America was the biggest market in 2014, accounting for 84 percent sales. While EMEA fetched 11 percent sales, Asia pacific contributed less than 3 percent, with demand in Australia, New Zealand and Japan Google India has launched two new Chromebooks in partnership with companies like Xolo and Nexian in India at a price of Rs 12,999. Apart from these Chromebooks, Google also announced the Asus Chromebook Flip C201 and a model by Samsung, which will be available later this year. Reuters