NPD: Chromebooks take up 20-25 percent of sub-$300 US notebook sales

Research firm NPD reveals Google's Chromebooks are doing better than anticipated and are one of the fastest growing parts of the PC market. Stephen Baker, NPD Vice President of Industry Analysis for Consumer Technology, told ZD Net that Chromebooks have come out of nowhere to claim around 5 percent of the total PC market. Baker added that in the last eight months, Chromebooks accounted for 20 to 25 percent of the US market for sub-$300 laptops.

What's driving this growth has not been the high-end Chromebook Pixel, but low-end Chromebooks such as the $199 Acer C710-2856 Chromebook and the $249 Samsung ARM-powered Chromebook.

While Chromebooks are what's pushing this market segment, bottom-of-the-line Windows 8 laptops on regular sales are also contributing to growth in this market according to Baker. "The entire low-end market, under $300 is growing. There's a trend towards aggressively priced PCs. These PCs are filling in the space left where the netbook used to be."

The Chromebook, in particular, Barker continued, is "growing for lots of reason. First and foremost, even cheap Chromebooks come with better hardware in this iteration." In addition, Chrome OS now "allows much more off-line activity, the Chromebook is no longer an always online device." Finally, "Google has spent significant money to promote the Chromebook and explain how it works to consumers."