A recent report from Microsoft is challenging public perception that Google’s successful Chromebook product is the leader in the K-12 edtech market.

“According to a market report cited by Microsoft, Windows-based PCs and devices outsold the nearest competitor by over 2-to-1 in global K-12 education sales in 2015,” said Thurrot.com.

The new market report from analysts at Futuresource indicates that Microsoft is outselling its competitors by twice as many mobile products even despite Chromebook’s recent success in the classroom.

Though many interpreters of the report urge cautiousness when reading the report because the data comes from only one analyst, they agree that the report nonetheless suggests that Chromebook might not be as dominant over education as previously thought.

Business Insider speculates as to why Microsoft may be outpacing its competition still.

Microsoft now has "a wider availability than before of cheap laptops that also run a full, versatile version of Windows, versus the Chromebooks' limitations (which are entirely web-browser based). Plus, Microsoft says that Windows is easier for a school's IT team to manage than the competition,” Business Insider says.

Thurrott.com also points out that the report is based on the entire global education market, while Chromebook is taking off in the U.S. education market only so far and is "a curiosity elsewhere in the world.”

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

3/1/2016