Google, Inc. announced that it was bringing Android Apps to Chromebook’s Thursday as new sales figures show that Chromebook’s outsold Apple computers in the first quarter.

The sales figures come from via International Data Corporation (IDC) who in a session at Google’s I/O conference disclosed that Apple shipped 1.76 million Macs in the United States in Q1, while Chromebooks from companies including the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), Lenovo Group Ltd., and Dell, Inc. sold nearly 2 million units.

In its quarterly report, IDC notes that the demand from Chromebooks is primarily being driven by schools, where the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the platform is making it a popular choice.

The bigger news of the day is that Chromebooks may no longer be simply a browser based gateway to the web, with Google announcing that the Google Play Store and subsequently Android Apps were coming to the platform.

Once available, Chromebook users with supported devices will be able to download and use any Android app currently in the Google Play store, including everything from Minecraft through to even the Android version of Microsoft Word.

“The same apps that run on phones and tablets can now run on Chromebooks without compromising their speed, simplicity or security,” Google Chrome OS Software Engineers Dylan Reid and Elijah Taylor posted to the official Chrome blog. “This is good for users and great for developers – in addition to phones and tablets, they will be able to easily bring their apps to laptops. And all this is built on top of Chrome OS, so users will continue to have everything they love in their Chromebooks.”

Game changer

While Chromebooks are great for people who spend their time on the internet alone, they are still seen as a novelty by many users due to its inability to run applications; while you can do many things in a web browser in 2016, there are still some things that are better done with the use of an app.

Today’s announcement is a game changer for not only Chromebooks themselves but potentially the entire industry.

A Chromebook that supports Android Apps, the same apps many are already familiar with on their smartphones, becomes a highly appealing offering, particularly given the device’s remarkably low price points; if your not familiar with the platform Chromebooks can be purchased for under $200 as they don’t require the computing power, storage and memory of systems running a standalone operating system and native apps.

Google will start rolling out Android App support in its developer channel from today for the M53 on the ASUS Chromebook Flip, the Acer Chromebook R 11 and the latest Chromebook Pixel, with other devices to follow.

Support for Android Apps in Chromebooks will be publicly available from September on supported devices.

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