Google reportedly has revised its forecast of global Chromebook shipments for 2023 to 20 million units compared to the previous projection of 25–25.5 million at the end of the first quarter, according to sources in the notebook industry.
Deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and weak end-market demand elsewhere in the world are cited as the reasons for Google's downward revision.
Global Chromebook shipments reached 30 million units in 2020 and hit a high of about 37.5 million at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic before falling to 19.5 million in 2022 in line with the decline of the post-pandemic demand.
Most industry sources had anticipated a pick-up in demand in 2023, along with the initiation of government-backed educational projects. However, relevant supply chain makers said that they have yet to see clear signs of recovery in demand, even though the notebook industry's inventory is said to return to an average level soon.
Shipments by individual brands, Dell is expected to ship two million Chromebooks this year compared to over three million in 2022 and six million in 2021.
HP will likely ship three million Chromebooks this year, down from 3.5 million in 2022 and 10 million in 2021. However, the sources estimated that HP has a chance to see its Chromebook shipments rebound to four million in 2024.
Acer will likely defy the declining trend to ramp up its Chromebook shipments to three million in 2023, up from 1.7 million shipped a year earlier. In 2021, it shipped about six million Chromebooks.
According to the sources, Asustek shipped about 1.1-1.2 million Chromebooks in 2022, and the projection of its shipments this year is still unknown.
Regarding platform, the proportion of Intel-based Chromebooks has dropped to about 70% recently, noted the sources, but adding that MediaTek has seen its share continue growing, likely to reach double digits in 2023. Meanwhile, Qualcomm-based products will account for only 1–2%.
While Intel will continue to promote its Jasper Lake and Gemini Lake CPU products this year, the US chip vendor may start rolling out its Alder Lake-N CPUs at a small volume in the fourth quarter.
