Chromebook sales will hit 7.3 million units in 2015, says Gartner

Will this growing trend start to tempt the enterprise?

Google's Chromebook appears to be breaking out of its core education market and making headway in the enterprise sector, with Gartner predicting total sales for 2015 to hit 7.3 million in 2015 - a 27 per cent increase on 2014.

"Since the first model launched in mid-2011, Google's Chromebook has seen success mainly in the education segment across all regions," said Isabelle Durand, a principal analyst at Gartner. "In 2014, the education sector purchased 72 per cent of Chromebooks in EMEA, 69 per cent in Asia Pacific, and 60 per cent in the US."

But where the education sector - which tends to favour low-hassle, uncomplicated technology - goes, others can follow, and Durand also believes the hike in shipping figures could spell an accelerated adoption by the enterprise.

"Chromebook is a device that can be considered by SMBs or new startup companies that do not have the resources to invest too much in IT infrastructure," said Durand.

"Chromebooks will become a valid device choice for employees as enterprises seek to provide simple, secure, low-cost and easy-to-manage access to new web applications and legacy systems, unless a specific application forces a Windows decision."

Computing spoke to one CIO late last year - United Biscuits' Clifford Burroughs - who is planning a fairly aggressive adoption of Chromebook at his company, with the help of a team of "Google Gurus".

"They understand the latest leading-edge technology. They've got Chromebooks, and haven't found much to disable them too radically," Burroughs told Computing.

Burroughs said staff had been impressed by how easy it is to collaborate using Google Drive and Google Docs.

He pointed said a group of senior directors, some of whom were not particularly technology-savvy, could "knock up a Google spreadsheet...a 200 line plan, in about an hour and a half".

But while Chrome OS does now support limited app functionality offline, the fact Chromebooks largely require always-on Wi-Fi, as well as a general end user trust in the cloud, can still act as a deterrent.

"The major factors that affect the adoption of Chromebooks by consumers remain the connectivity issue in emerging markets, but also the ability for users to understand and get used to cloud-based applications, and keep content in the cloud and ecosystem," said Durand.