Net analytics firm Net Applications has released its latest mobile browser market share data, and the results on the Android side were a bit of a surprise to me: apps based on the stock Android browser are still handily trouncing Chrome for usage. That includes 3rd party solutions like the stock Samsung, HTC, and LG browsers, all of which are based on the stock Android browser.

To be precise, the figures are 21.86% of all mobile visits for the "Android Browser," but a mere 2.43% for Chrome (Safari is out in front, at 61.79%). That includes the iOS version of Chrome, too, so the figure is even lower if you're only counting Android handsets.

Given that Google has started requiring OEMs to include the Chrome browser as part of Android since version 4.1 - and that a default browser must be chosen by the end user - this is quite intriguing. Net Applications collects the data from over 40,000 websites comprising 160,000,000 pageviews, so it's not like a small data set is skewing things here, either. For the record, Android 4.1+ now makes up 25% of Play Store-enabled devices.

Given Chrome's ever-increasing popularity as a PC browser, one would think its success on Android would be something of a given, but it seems that the vast majority (based on these figures, around 90%) of Android phone users are drawn to the stock browsing experience. Now, there is likely a significant skew is built into these analytics, because not every Android device is Play Store-enabled (especially cheap tablets), meaning no Google Chrome. But that's not really a skew, so much as the reality of how Android is penetrating the mobile device market as a whole.

Either way, the numbers are certainly eye-opening - Chrome has a long way to go in the mobile browser space, even on its home platform.

Net Applications via AllThingsD