Millennial: Android Tops Apple In Mobile Ad Share

Android ended 2010 by overtaking Apple's iOS as the leading smartphone platform on the Millennial Media mobile ad network, with a 46% share of impressions compared to Apple's 32% in December. That reflects a 12 percentage-point swing from November, when Android and iOS each claimed a 38% share.

The Millennial data comes a week after comScore reported that Android for the first time had surpassed iPhone in U.S. subscribers as of November, with a 26% share to Apple's 25%. Both still trail Research in Motion's BlackBerry, which had 33.5% of the market.

Android ad requests in the fourth quarter jumped 141% from the prior quarter, and were up more than 3,000% for the year. By contrast, iOS ad requests grew just 12% from quarter to quarter and 14% for the year. Ad requests on the iPad, however, increased 280% from the third to the fourth quarter.

When it comes to ads served in apps on Millennial's network, Android had a 55% share in the fourth quarter, up 13 percentage points from the previous quarter and well ahead of Apple's 39% share. Gaming apps remained the biggest category, accounting for 26% of app impressions. But travel and vacation-related apps picked up steam during the quarter, doubling impressions.

"Apps in this category have evolved to bring online capabilities to the mobile platform (e.g., reservations, check-in, boarding passes, travel, updates, etc.). The double-digit quarterly growth shows that mobile consumers found value in staying connected through their mobile devices as they traveled this holiday season," stated the latest monthly Millennial report.

In terms of devices, the iPhone is still the single biggest device on the company's ad network, driving 12.5% of impressions. And Apple is the top device manufacturer, representing 21% of the top 15 handset makers on the network, followed by Samsung, with about 17% and HTC, with 15%. But Android's expansion was also apparent here, as it runs on 16 of the top 30 devices, up from 11 in November.

Smartphones overall generated 60% of Millennial's traffic in December, up 2% from November. Feature phones made up 30% of impressions, and connected devices, 10%.

With the long-awaited arrival of the Verizon iPhone next month, however, Apple could take back some market share from Android, both in the smartphone and mobile ad market. Analysts expect Verizon to sell up to 15 million iPhones this year, comparable with the approximately 14 million estimated to be sold through AT&T in 2010.

Millennial earlier this month disclosed raising $27.5 million in new venture funding from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. The company says its ads reach a mobile audience of 63 million, or 81% of U.S. mobile Web users.

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