AdMob: iPhone Had 40% of Ad Requests In May

by Mark Walsh, Jun 30, 2010, 8:00 AM

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What a difference two years makes. In its latest monthly metrics report, AdMob looks at changes in the mobile ad landscape between May 2010 and the same period two years earlier.

The study highlights some dramatic shifts. In May 2008, for instance, the Nokia N70 accounted for the largest share of ad requests, with 10.8%, compared to 3.5% for the iPhone. Fast forward to last month, and the iPhone generates nearly 40% of ad requests, while the N70 has only 2.5%. That's a snapshot of the diverging fortunes of Apple and Nokia in the last couple of years, with the Finnish mobile phone giant losing ground to Apple and other competitors in the smartphone race.

Smartphones overall have proliferated, driving 46% of ad requests last month compared to 22% in 2008. High-end phones running Google's Android operating system in particular have a fast-growing presence on the AdMob network. While the iPhone is still by far the leading device by ad requests, 7 of the top 10 phones are Android phones, including the Motorola Droid, HTC Magic and HTC Hero.

Android's gains have come at the iPhone's expense--the 40% of ad requests the Apple device drives is down from 48% a year ago.

Devices running Apple's iOS platform and Android phones both show higher proportions of mobile Web and app usage than other smartphone platforms. Apple, for example, had a 15% share of the smartphone market as of the first quarter, but accounted for 40% of usage. Obviously, the 200,000 apps available in the App Store play a big part in driving up Apple's share of data use.

Android devices, likewise, represented 10% of smartphones sold in the first quarter, but generated 26% of Web browsing and app usage. BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, by contrast, had 19% of smartphone sales, but made up only 6% of usage on AdMob's network.

While iPhone and Android users have similar habits, twice as many iPhone (and iPod touch) users regularly download paid apps as their Android counterparts. Half of iPhone owners said they bought one or more apps a month compared to 21% of Android users and 24% of Palm (webOS) users. Again, Apple's dominance isn't surprising since it offers a much bigger app catalog than either of the other two smartphone systems.

When it comes to the iPad, AdMob said the bulk of users of the Apple tablet so far have been in the U.S. (58%), followed by Japan (5 %), United Kingdom and China (each 4%), and Canada (3%). AdMob rival Millennial Media said ad requests on its network from the iPad were up 160% in May over April, when the device was released. Since then, Apple has said more than 3 million iPads have been sold.

With its May report, AdMob said in a blog post it plans to take a break from issuing its monthly analytics reports "while we consider how to re-invent the report to make it more useful and relevant." The company's $750 million acquisition by Google was approved in May after a six-month antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

AdMob's research is based on data collected from ad requests across its network of more than 23,000 mobile Web sites and iPhone, Android, webOS and Flash Lite applications.

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