Windows sees continued growth in education market among low-end devices

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Microsoft continues to see solid growth among Windows devices in the education market.

FutureSource has released its latest report{.nofollow} on PC shipments in the K-12 education market, and Microsoft continues to show momentum.

Overall, PC shipments grew year-over-year in the second quarter by 4.6 percent, increasing to 6.5 million units. And while Google's Chromebooks continue to dominate in the U.S. market, Microsoft saw its global share of low-cost Windows devices grow by 11 percent.

Microsoft, especially, has been working hard to close the price gap between Windows and Chromebook by promoting partner devices on the Windows platform, priced as low as $189. Globally, Windows share in sub $300 category grew by 11% year-on-year in Q2 2018, with shipments of Windows devices in the category growing 75%.

For the first half of 2018, Windows made up a 62.2 percent share of devices shipped outside of the U.S. That's up from 61.7 percent in the first half of 2017, and it outpaces Chrome OS, which stood at a 9.2 percent share in the first half of 2018. In the U.S., it's a different story, with Chrome OS representing a leading position of 58 percent over Windows' 20.4 percent share.

The increase comes amid an increased focus on the education market by Microsoft. That includes the company's efforts with Windows 10 in S Mode devices, along with several partnerships, features, and more introduced in January. Classroom-focused features in OneNote and Microsoft Teams are also intended to give Windows a leg up over its competitors.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the Editor in Chief for Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. Got a hot tip? Send it to daniel.thorp-lancaster@futurenet.com.
17 Comments
  • Holy cow. I've been out of school for too long. I went to the "good" school in my area and we only had a computer lab with like 40 or so PCs running Vista, a library with 20 computers running Vista, and every teacher had a Dell desktop running Vista or XP. How the heck did Chrome take over so quickly? Do schools really have that many more computers now?
  • My nephew is starting 6th grade this year. From what I hear, at his elementary school they had carts of loaner tablets and such that the kids used at various points in the day. So it is effectively close to one "computer" per student in some schools.
  • Well if you're old enough like some of us, I remember that our only computer was between your ears, and the output device was paper and a #2 pencil. Hell, I remember in 7th grade when the rich kid brought in the first four-function calculator I ever saw, $400 and it was RPN.
  • I started college with a slide rule about the time the first pocket calculators appeared (1965). The big debate was whether using a calculators was cheating. :)
  • It's pretty simple.... rock bottom chromebook prices due to minimum storage & arm SOCs, no IT staff to pay & I'm sure Google is subsidizing costs to gain market share.
  • Also Google Classroom and Google docs and sheets which are easily shared. It's really the simplified software and of course how well Chromebooks work in the education market with each user easily logging in and out easily and securely. Google, whether you like them or not, have been brilliant, here in the US, in giving the education market what it needs.
  • Chromebook is fine for elementary... for high schools or university kids? They will hit obstacles when they leave school tbh. What kinda job / business that can earn you 3k~10k+ a month, runs purely on web browser?
  • Wow that is a huge difference between the US and the rest of the world.
  • Having moved from Great Britain to California in the last year, with 2 boys of school age, the use of IT is far behind in the US - my children go to a GATE school too, so in theory that should be the pinnacle of the school system. There's little effort to teach programming or office apps, so it's no surprise Chromebooks being cheaper, but far less flexible are popular, the education is simply not at a level of the rest of the world. I'm not sure they're learning more IT skills than I did when I was their age, when schools that had a 380Z or several ZX80s, were sophisticated.
  • Not just IT.... The US was 20-30th place in the world in education as of a few years ago, I'm sure that Tumpido hasn't improved that standing. It's a problem of being behind in EVERYTHING regarding education, not just tech skills.
  • Like many I saw this happening the moment Microsoft announced their consumer retrenchment. Good to see Microsoft taking steps to rectify that mistake.
  • "but but with chrome OS there is no way for Windows to regain school market share"
  • Windows is a dead operating system walking.
  • Keep kidding yourself
  • OH ouch.. must hurt ..like when how google kept pulling a dead flash plugin all the way that caused massive security issues... "very mobile, so secure" I think I will buy myself a chrome boo.. nope : ) , rest of the world says "hello" btw.
  • Calling something that is gaining market share dead... Bright!
  • Any business or enterprises that can give 3k~10k+ a month to a freshman, run its operation purely on a browser (or phone OS)?