Tablets Expand On Millennial Network

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The iPad may be the dominant tablet brand, but Android-based rivals are registering on radar as mobile ad vehicles in their own right. New findings from Millennial Media show a trio of tablets made its ranking of top 20 mobile devices by mobile ad impressions for the first time in the first quarter.

In addition to the iPad, that select group included the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The Apple tablet actually increased its share of the market in the first quarter to 68%, per IDC.

That gain came partly at the expense of the Kindle Fire, whose share fell to just 4% following a steep post-holiday falloff in sales.

Total tablet sales during the quarter more than doubled to 17.4 million from 7.9 million in the year-earlier period. That translates into more tablet advertising. The Millennial report showed that the share of impressions from connected devices including tablets increased to 20% in the first quarter, up from 15% a year ago.

Smartphones still account for the vast majority of impressions, at 73%, with feature phones representing just 7% -- down from 23% a year ago. When it comes to mobile operating systems, Android accounted for nearly half (49%) the impressions on Millennial’s network, followed by iOS (33%), BlackBerry (14%), Windows Phone (3%) and Symbian (1%).

The iPhone itself, however, remained the top handset -- driving 15% of impressions with the BlackBerry Curve and Motorola Droid Razr the next closest, with about 4% share each. On the strength of the iPhone and iPad, Apple was the leading manufacturer, with 28.3% share, well ahead of Samsung (18.2%), HTC (11.3%), and Motorola and Research in Motion, both at about 10%.

Among applications, games was the top category, followed by music and entertainment, social media, communications and productivity and tools. Sports didn’t make the top five categories, but it generated almost twice the number of impressions from the fourth quarter due to apps tied to major events, like the Super Bowl and the NCAA tournament.

The Millennial data also pointed to a growing video audience on mobile devices. The company said the number of video ads viewed has increased 10-fold in the quarter compared to a year ago. comScore research showed YouTube ranks as a top 10 app on both the Android and iOS platforms.

Millennial, which went public in March, said it has 300 million unique visitors worldwide generating 45 billion impressions a month. Beyond that, it supports 7,000 device types and models and 30,000 apps are enabled to run ads on its platform.

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1 comment on "Tablets Expand On Millennial Network".

1. Mihael Mikek from Celtra Inc
   

   commented on: May 25, 2012 at 11:45 a.m.
   Mark Walsh, great article and interesting findings by Millenial Media. While the statistic is significant, I can’t say it’s very surprising that tablets account for 20 percent of all 45 billion monthly ad impressions. First, tablets can drive higher because they present a larger canvas that is better equipped to display content and messaging. In addition, this extra space allows more creative options as to how a user might interact with an advertisement. If you think about it, tablets really do combine the best of the PC and mobile worlds for advertisers. At my company, we have found that tablets typically deliver 3-5 times better results than on mobile phones, meaning their click-through and engagement rates are higher. We have also found that tablet users gravitate more to photo galleries, video, social media sharing, gamification and so on. The larger screen combined with the speed of a Wi-Fi Internet connection simply creates an optimal environment for more advanced rich media creative executions and advertisements. Expect that 20 percent to increase steadily over the months and years ahead - Mihael Mikek, Celtra

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