How Apple may have inspired Google to improve its Chromebooks

Google’s Chromebooks — which have recently become quite popular in the global PC market — may soon come running on chipsets that are designed by Google. As reported by Nikkei Asia, the company is developing processors for Chrome OS-powered laptops and tablets in-house.
The report cites three sources with knowledge of the matter who gave a tentative timeline for the launch of such a device by 2023.
Google seems to be following Apple’s footsteps as the report claims that it was inspired by the iPhone maker to work on this development. In its report, Nikkei Asia said, “Google was particularly inspired by Apple’s success in developing its own key semiconductor components for iPhones as well as last year’s announcement that it would replace Intel CPUs with its own offerings for Mac computers and laptops.”
To recall, Apple has been producing in-house iPhone chipsets since it did first with iPhone 4 in 2010 and made the first such offering for Mac computers last year.
For Google, using its own processor in Chromebooks will be a boon for the product lineup as it will make it easier for the company to include their own features into those chips that could meet its specific needs. Talking about these chipsets, the report added that the new CPUs are set to be based on the chip blueprints of ARM.
Rising Chromebooks popularity
In the past couple of quarters, Chromebooks have managed to emerge as the most popular PCs globally. Back in February, a report by IDC had claimed that 2020 was the first full year in which Chrome OS took second place beating Apple’s macOS.
Recent reports by both Canalys and IDC have outlined how Chromebooks’ market share grew in the worldwide markets.
While the report by IDC said that Chromebook shipments grew 68.6% year over year with volumes reaching 12.3 million units which weren’t far off the prior two quarters, which shattered previous highs for the product category, Canalys claimed that Google’s Chromebooks has outperformed the rest of the industry product categories, posting 75% annual growth and a shipment volume of 11.9 million units in Q2 2021.