Are Chromebooks Really Ahead Of Apple Inc. (AAPL) In U.S. Education?

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chromebooks have not actually outpaced Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the United States Classrooms claims a report from Apple Insider.

Last week, an article in the Financial Times written by Matthew Garrahan and Tim Bradshaw stated that Apple has lagged behind Google in the United States schools, finally losing its long retained position.

Apple way ahead

The report was based on the IDC estimates that suggested the total shipments of notebooks running on Google’s Chrome OS to the United States schools overpowered Apple’s iPad sales by 13,500 units in the September quarter.

However, both the authors narrowly rectify their claims in the middle of the report saying that the iPhone maker still maintains a slim lead over Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) on comparing the products both companies market to education, says Apple Insider.

According to a report from IDC, Apple garnered higher sales for its Mac and iPads, compared to the combined shipments of Android and Chrome Operating system products, but the narrow lead that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) maintained over Google was higher by 172.6% than the unit differential that Garrahan and Bradshaw mentioned in the article.

Chromebook not popular among businesses

The article from Garrahan and Bradshaw gathered a lot of attention, however, the truth is Chromebooks are garnering little sales luring only a niche market which constitutes only tiny share of iPad’s global market. Chromebooks are distant competitors of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the education market even though the efforts of Chromebooks were started before Apple entering the zone.

In August, Gartner analyst Isabelle Durand estimated that 2.9 million Chromebooks were sold in 2013, of which 82% were sold in North America and of these 85% were directed towards U.S. education.

“So far,” Durand wrote, “businesses have looked at Chromebooks, but not bought many.”

Chromebook are not posing a threat to Apple’s iPad sales. However, this does not mean that quality wise Chromebooks are inferior and customers should not buy it, however, the confusion was created due to the misleading report that market research groups and their journalist collaborators are imposing on the public as “news,” says Apple Insider.