IDC forecasts PC average selling prices to rise 18.3% in 2026 while shipments fall 11.3%, in its outlook updated 8 June 2026. Chromebooks sit almost entirely below $500, the price band Omdia expects to shrink 28% this year. This post covers the component costs behind the increase, what Japanese schools paid per device, and quarterly Chromebook shipment data through Q2 2026.
Chromebook average selling price: key figures
Why Chromebook average selling prices are climbing
Memory is the cost driver. TrendForce put notebook DRAM contract prices up more than 80% quarter on quarter in Q1 2026, with SSD contract prices up more than 70%.
The share those parts take of a notebook’s build cost roughly doubled. TrendForce estimates DRAM and SSD normally account for about 15% of notebook bill-of-materials cost, rising above 30% in Q1 2026.
HP reported the same pattern in its own accounts. On its Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings call on 25 February 2026, CFO Karen Parkhill said memory and storage would reach 35% of HP’s PC production costs, up from roughly 15% to 18% in the prior quarter, with memory costs up about 100% sequentially.
| Cost input | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Notebook DRAM contract price | +80% QoQ | Q1 2026 |
| Notebook SSD contract price | +70% QoQ | Q1 2026 |
| DRAM and SSD share of notebook BOM | ~15% to above 30% | Q1 2026 |
| Memory and CPU combined share of BOM | ~45% to ~58% | Q1–Q2 2026 |
| Intel price rise, entry and older notebook CPUs | +15% | Q1 2026 |
Source: TrendForce, press releases dated 26 January 2026 and 10 March 2026
Notebook bill-of-materials cost shares
TrendForce modelled a mainstream notebook carrying a $900 list price and found memory increases alone could lift retail prices by more than 30%, approaching 40% once Intel’s CPU rises are counted.
Chromebooks cost less than that reference machine. Omdia’s $90 to $165 is a fixed dollar figure, so it eats a larger portion of a $250 education device than of a $649 Chromebook Plus, a squeeze visible across Chromebook and Windows laptop shipment comparisons.
Omdia named the consequence directly in August 2026: memory now takes a disproportionately large share of the bill of materials for budget and education-tier devices, making Chromebooks one of the hardest-hit device categories in the current supply-constrained environment.
Chromebook average selling price in Japan’s GIGA School programme
MM Research Institute ran the only large published survey that records what buyers actually paid per Chromebook. It phoned all 1,741 Japanese municipalities between June and July 2025 and received 1,249 responses.
The overall average landed at ¥55,000, matching the government subsidy ceiling of ¥55,000 per device. ChromeOS came in ¥1,000 below Windows and ¥3,000 below iPadOS.
| Operating system | Average unit price | Share of phase-two units |
|---|---|---|
| ChromeOS | ¥54,000 | 60% |
| Windows | ¥55,000 | 10% |
| iPadOS | ¥57,000 | 31% |
| All devices | ¥55,000 | 6.21 million units |
Source: MM Research Institute, ICT deployment survey for GIGA phase two, July 2025. Shares are based on 1,174 organisations covering 6.21 million units and are rounded.
Average unit price paid by operating system
Timing separates the schools that bought cheaply from the ones that will not. MM Research Institute found 72% of phase-two devices, 4.75 million of 6.61 million units, were scheduled for procurement in fiscal 2025, with 22% or 1.44 million units left for fiscal 2026 under the same ¥55,000 cap.
Omdia’s Kieren Jessop said in May 2026 that supply constraints are expected to delay the second phase of GIGA School Program 2.0. Japan’s weighting against other markets sits in these country-level Chromebook shipment figures, and district-side buying appears in data on Chromebook adoption across K-12 schools.
What shipment data shows alongside rising Chromebook prices
Volumes turned negative as prices rose. Omdia counted 5.415 million Chromebook units shipped worldwide in Q2 2026, down 8.6% from 5.926 million a year earlier.
Q1 2026 had already fallen 11.5% to 4.503 million units. Four of the five largest vendors shipped fewer units than a year earlier in both quarters.
| Vendor | Q2 2026 units | Q2 2025 units | Share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo | 1,758,000 | 1,809,000 | 32.5% | -2.8% |
| Acer | 1,183,000 | 1,230,000 | 21.8% | -3.9% |
| HP | 1,155,000 | 1,328,000 | 21.3% | -13.0% |
| Asus | 749,000 | 450,000 | 13.8% | +66.2% |
| Dell | 465,000 | 879,000 | 8.6% | -47.1% |
| Others | 105,000 | 230,000 | 1.9% | -54.5% |
| Total | 5,415,000 | 5,926,000 | 100.0% | -8.6% |
Source: Omdia PC Horizon Service (sell-in shipments), Q2 2026, published August 2026
Chromebook shipments by vendor, Q2 2025 against Q2 2026
Omdia attributes the fall to vendors deprioritising Chromebooks for their low profitability, to elevated Q2 2025 volumes when education deployments peaked, and to pre-agreed deployments running late. Lenovo’s decline followed the close of the first phase of Japan’s GIGA 2.0 programme, where it was the primary supplier. Quarter-by-quarter vendor unit rankings track the same movement.
Chromebook average selling price outlook for the rest of 2026
Omdia forecast in March 2026 that Chrome devices would fall 28% over the year, the steepest decline of any PC platform, against 12% for Windows and 5% for macOS.
The same forecast put PCs priced below $500 down 28% to around 62.1 million units, while machines at $900 and above may hold modest growth. Omdia principal analyst Ben Yeh said lower-priced products have less margin room to absorb rising costs.
Forecast 2026 shipment change by platform
Relief is not expected inside 2026. Omdia stated in July 2026 that neither memory nor storage prices are projected to reverse within the year, even though the pace of increases should ease in the second half.
IDC expects no meaningful memory relief before the end of 2027. Its June 2026 update pairs the 18.3% price rise with a 20% year-on-year shipment fall in Q4 2026, a combination that also reshapes ChromeOS share of education fleets and the Chromebook against iPad split in schools.
Retail evidence points the same way. Apple launched the MacBook Neo on 4 March 2026 at $599, or $499 for education, then raised both by $100 on 25 June 2026, saying it had never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. Lenovo’s Chromebook Plus 14 launched at $649 on 23 June 2025.
FAQs
Reddit threads say Chromebook prices are rising in 2026. Do the data agree?
Yes. Omdia recorded prices on comparable PC product lines running 20% to 40% above the same period a year earlier in Q2 2026. IDC forecasts PC average selling prices up 18.3% across full-year 2026.
Does Reddit or any tracker publish a Chromebook-only average selling price?
No shipment tracker publishes a Chromebook-only average selling price. The nearest measured figure is Japan’s GIGA phase two, where ChromeOS devices averaged ¥54,000 per unit, per MM Research Institute in July 2025.
How much have memory and storage added to the cost of a PC?
Between $90 and $165 per device since Q1 2025, according to Omdia in March 2026. HP told investors in February 2026 that memory and storage would reach 35% of its PC production costs.
How many Chromebooks shipped in Q2 2026?
Omdia counted 5.415 million units worldwide, down 8.6% from 5.926 million in Q2 2025. Lenovo led with 1.758 million units and a 32.5% share. Asus grew 66.2% to 749,000 units.
Will Chromebook prices come down later in 2026?
Omdia said in July 2026 that neither memory nor storage prices are projected to reverse within the year. IDC expects no meaningful relief from the memory shortage before the end of 2027.
Sources
https://www.idc.com/promo/pcdforecast/
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260806999460/en/Omdia-Supply-Pressures-Weigh-on-Global-Tablet-Market-as-Shipments-Decline-10-in-Q2-2026
https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20260310-12959.html
https://www.m2ri.jp/release/detail.html?id=686
