The end of Microsoft’s reign over the PC operating system world seems to be approaching sooner than we thought. Although free operating systems like Linux have become extremely popular, they are hardly a serious threat to Microsoft’s Windows platform as Linux and other Unix-based platforms are mainly used by advanced PC users who have considerable programming knowledge. But Chrome OS is a different story.
You may not have yet seen many people using Chromebooks but according to PC makers – Acer, their company’s Chromebooks are far outselling devices with the latest Windows 8 operating system. In fact, surveys show that Windows 7 still dominates the market by accounting for 45% of all computers in use compared to the measly 1.7% for Windows 8. Also, Samsung’s Chromebook is the best selling laptop on Amazon.com beating out Windows 7 run Acer Aspire, which is only the 8th best selling laptop. This goes on to show that people are slowly moving on to the internet-based Chrome OS, which could be a huge blow to Microsoft.
Chrome OS wins without big-budget advertising
Many experts predicted that the Chrome OS wouldn’t find many takers as it is completely internet based and is no better than a glorified Chrome browser. The fact that many people are embracing Chromebooks comes as a surprise. More so, because Google hardly has any aggressive marketing campaigns for their Chrome OS the way Microsoft does for the Windows 8 operating system. Although it is still not very useful for advanced computer users who work with special applications and software, the Chrome OS works perfectly for average computer users.
Even though, Microsoft marketed its latest offering aggressively, the sales figures have been quite unimpressive. On the other hand, Google was able to create a buzz around the Chrome OS on the Internet due to its wide reach on the web. Also, Chromebooks are far cheaper than computers running on Windows operating systems as the Chrome OS has no licensing fee. This has prompted major PC makers – Acer, Lenovo and Samsung – to launch their own Chromebooks with HP announcing that it would be launching a Chromebook early this year. All these computers cost on average about $200, which is far less expensive than devices running on Windows 8 that are priced at $800 and above.
Some reasons for the popularity of the Chrome OS
Although Chrome OS is Linux based, it is very user friendly and this has made it a hit among average computer users. The popularity of Chrome OS can be attributed to the success of the Chrome web browser because the interface of Chrome OS is very similar to that of the browser. So users who are already familiar with the Chrome web browser have no problems using Chromebooks.