iPad already matches Linux in web market share; will represent 2.3% of total net traffic in 2011

In an interesting Chitika research note, the internet advertising firm says the iPad is currently making up 0.83% of all internet traffic. When Chitika says "all internet traffic" they mean the 100,000+ sites they serve ads to. Still, if we can extrapoloate those numbers to the entire Internet, a 0.83% share of web traffic on a device that is less than a year old is nothing short of amazing -- especially when you consider that the iPad is going head to head with every other smart phone, laptop, and desktop on the planet in these numbers.

Perhaps what is even more amazing is that at current growth rates, Chitika says the iPad will account for 2.3% of all web traffic by the end of 2011. As AllThingsDigital points out, Chitika did take some flak earlier this year when it ran a counter of the total number of iPads sold, which turned out to be off the mark, but Chitika's research director Daniel Ruby says he's confident of this prediction since it's a metric Chitika can directly measure.

So just how impressive are those 0.83% and 2.3% web traffic numbers? Pretty damn impressive. Ruby points out that at even the its current 0.83% web traffic share, the iPad already matches the total North American web market share of Linux -- an OS that is having its 20th birthday next year. Not too bad for a device you never knew you needed until it came into existence nine months ago.