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Much like smartphones, most laptop purchases in India are on the lower end of the price spectrum. By that measure, you might expect Chromebooks to be all over the place in local storefronts, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. India is truly a market for Windows laptops, and this patronage has left Chromebooks with virtually no room to be relevant. But things started to take a positive turn for these budget Google laptops when the world suddenly shut down last year.
It’s not like Chromebooks never had a chance to prove themselves in the region. Until a few years ago, there were a handful of good options available from almost every major laptop manufacturer. But back then, Chrome OS was nothing more than a browser and made little sense compared to a more complete operating system like Windows. Also, the base prices for Windows laptops and Chromebooks were quite close, putting the Microsoft operating system in a much more favorable position, while the latter remained something of a novelty.
Until last year, the only option you had was buying a premium HP Chromebook, which made absolutely no financial sense in a country like India.
These always-on laptops were also a big hurdle for most internet hungry Indians. And Google’s marketing, or rather lack of it, for Chrome OS hasn’t helped either. (Google has also consistently failed to steer its efforts beyond the lower end of the Indian smartphone market, making the burgeoning mid-range feel abandoned.) The country’s connectivity issues have been in great shape. part resolved in the post-Jio era, but Google’s approach did not work. t really catch up. Most buyers still didn’t fully understand what Chrome OS was – or worse, that it even existed and might be a better option for some use cases.
All of this contributed to a slow but steady decline in Chromebooks in the Indian market, so much so that it was almost impossible to find one. Until last year, the only option you had was to buy a premium Chromebook from HP, which made absolutely no financial sense in a country like India, while importing a unit from the United States would equate to an even higher price with all imports. functions.
Even though India continues to be the number one market for smartphones, demand for laptops skyrocketed, much like everywhere else, when the pandemic struck early last year, pushing offices and businesses alike. classrooms to connect overnight. Yet Chromebooks have never been an option for almost everyone, as has my sister, a teacher, who went out and bought a laptop and ended up buying a Windows machine. But I wouldn’t blame buyers like her for the general perception of Chrome OS and the utter lack of options.
Clearly, Chromebooks weren’t going to take the market by storm all of a sudden, but they did have a (very) slight increase in sales.
But this staggering increase in laptop sales has allowed companies to test the waters again, with a handful of Chromebook models popping up here and there over the past year. It was clear that Chromebooks weren’t going to take the market by storm all at once, but they saw a (very) slight increase in sales compared to the previous year. This was enough of a sign that Asus is very recently committing to a larger line of Chromebooks for India, even though it happened more than a year after the pandemic first hit. But it is nonetheless a welcome gesture.
The best part about these Chromebooks is that they are much more reasonably priced and don’t try to compete unnecessarily with Windows laptops which caused them to go out of business in the first place. Take the Asus lineup, for example; you get a convertible laptop for under 24,000 (~ $ 325), which is unheard of from the Windows side, while the standard flip-flops cost even less. And it’s not as if these devices compromise on fit and finish to bring the prices down; on the contrary, they are more convenient for your Zoom calls, your online courses and maybe even as a secondary portable device.
In all these years, Chrome OS has gone from being a simple browser window to being much more capable without further overloading the hardware. It can run Android apps surprisingly well and comes with cutting edge software support. And with just about everything available on the web – even powerful photo editors like Photopea – getting an expensive Windows or Mac laptop on a Chromebook seemed like a bad idea for my own laptop purchase (though I was quick to come back to this thought).
Chromebooks still have a long way to go in India, but with fairer prices they now at least have a clear idea of what’s going on.
Still, the truth is, most people will be more comfortable buying an iPad than a Chromebook if getting a “lean” operating system was a priority. With just 0.14% market share, Chrome OS sits at the bottom of the Indian desktop market, which is one of the main reasons why the Google operating system is not so widely known. It would take a collective and equal push from Google and manufacturers to get these laptops out of this cycle and into the mainstream. Chromebooks still have a long way to go in India, but with fairer prices they now at least have a clear idea of what’s going on.
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