Gregg Keizer corrects the record regarding Chromebook sales. Somebody had to. Gregg is consistently a thorough reporter who actually reports rather than hypes or falls into The Echo Chamber.
NPD’s press release clearly states U.S. “commercial channels” not all retail sales, as has been widely misreported. That 21 percent number isn’t the whole pie but a much smaller portion of it. This misreading, misunderstanding, or misreporting (take your pick) fostered an echo chamber of stories predicting 2014 as the year of the Chromebook. In your dreams.
Microsoft should be concerned about Chromebook sales through commercial channels, as they represent one of its core markets. So stories warning of Chromebook threat to the Microsoft hegemony aren’t necessarily off-base. But misquoting the figures, and accompanying chart, is simply wrong. I can appreciate analyst Stephen Baker’s frustration.
“There has been a ton of misreporting as many lazy reporters and bloggers have characterized this as all sales, which it wasn’t, or even consumer sales, which it most assuredly was not”, the analyst tells the reporter. “It has been very personally distressing to me that so many reporters/bloggers refuse to read, or don’t know what commercial channels mean”.
Yesterday, I attempted to cool some of the Chromebook hype with a more realistic take. Despite my Chromebook enthusiasm, I see potholes ahead. Deep ones, scattered like land mines.
Kudos to Gregg.
Photo Credit: Ansel Adams (Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress)