The move from laptop to handheld computer, tablets, to be more precise was always going to happen and figures recently released show that it’s happened, and in a rather big way. The marketplace for computers has moved dramatically in the past few years and 2026 saw some huge swings in what we bought, and are therefore using, with only the Google Chromebook giving hope to the preconfigured notebooks market. During 2026 Android tablet sales increased by 160% a large year on year increase, and even Windows tablets did extremely well, and although they still only have a tiny share of the market, sales in Windows operated tablets tripled for the year. Although iPad still does extremely well, sales actually slipped in 2026, and the real winner of the year was the Chromebook which accounted for over 20% of all preconfigured notebooks that were sold in 2026.
We can see that Google was a clear winner in the notebook stakes and its iOS operating system did well against Windows and the more standard PC set up, however huge PC companies such as Lenovo and HP are still of course committed to using the Windows operating system. The trend towards Android tablets seems set to continue however and what seems like a never ending stream of new Android powered devices appears to hit the market each month. And why not? They are affordable, easy to use and if you’re not too concerned about being in with the i crowd then they are a great device.
