Over the past 18 months, Intel has been striking on the Chromebook market as the said market grows as more and more content is placed and trusted to the cloud. The company, that makes many CPU chips and graphics, wants to help customers switching to a Chromebook device to have a much easier time with their switch.
With their app, conveniently named Intel Easy Migration, users can easily migrate files from their mobile devices or PCs to Intel-powered Chromebooks. The app can move all sorts of files like photos, videos, and audio to even contacts and more. The Intel Easy Migration app let’s the customer move any of said files from their mobile Apple iOS or Google Android device to their Chromebook or even files from their Intel-powered Windows computers.
According to Intel officials, the customer can use the Quick Migration function to have all of their files sent over to the targeted destination, or manually select the files they want to have migrated. The user can also pause the migration whenever they wish to. The app is available in the Google Play and Apple App Store online stores, or can be downloaded for Microsoft Windows systems. Through the software, users can migrate their local and Hotmail contacts to Google Contacts, and their photos and videos to Google+ Photos. The app will also show how much space on their Google Drive is being used during the migration.
The new app by Intel comes shortly after the popularity for the Chromebook grew, the trend continuing through 2014. In July, analysts with NPD Group found that during the first half of the year, Chromebook sales in the U.S. commercial channel jumped 250 percent from the same period in 2013 and accounted for 35 percent of the notebook sales in the channel.
“Building on last year’s surprising strength, Chrome’s unit strength ahead of this year’s education buying season shows how it has become a legitimate third platform alongside Windows and Mac OS X and iOS,” Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said in a statement at the time.
Analysts also look at the Chromebook as a key reason – alongside Microsoft cancelling Windows XP support – for the decline of global PC sales this year. Intel has been aggressive in pursuing the Chromebook market as part of its larger efforts to gain inroads in the mobile device space against ARM and its manufacturing partners and to extend the reach of its chip portfolio into as many computing devices as possible. That includes supporting a broad range of operating systems, including Windows, Android and Chrome.