According to a new report from ad network Chitika, Chrome OS usage continues to increase, but it still trails the PlayStation and the various flavors of Linux that the company sees on its network. Since last June, Chrome OS’s share of traffic on Chitika’s network increased by 700 percent. Even so, Chromebooks still just account for 0.07 percent of desktop- and laptop-based traffic to sites in the company’s network. That puts it ahead of the Wii at 0.02 percent and behind the PlayStation with 0.08 percent, but those consoles were obviously never meant to be web-centric devices to begin with. Last June, Chrome OS accounted for 0.011 percent of traffic across Chitika’s network.
As usual, there are a few caveats when it comes to taking Chitika’s data at face value, but the overall trend the company cites seems about right.
On TechCrunch, the number of readers who use Chrome OS has tripled since last June according to our Google Analytics stats. Chromebooks currently account for about 0.18 percent of all unique visits, so we can’t quite confirm the same 700 percent increase, but our site is obviously not representative of the web as a whole.
Given its high price, Google’s new Chromebook Pixel isn’t likely to make a dent in these numbers anytime soon, but Google is obviously highly committed to this project and as we see more low-priced Chromebooks hit the market (and schools and enterprises), chances are these numbers will continue to creep up in the coming month. Despite positive sales numbers from companies like Acer and new entrants in the Chromebook market like Lenovo and HP, however, Chrome OS will likely remain a niche product for the time being.
