• by Aaron Baar , December 17, 2012

Apple and Android continue to dominate the mobile market on the metric that matters to marketers most: ad impressions. 

According to mobile ad network InMobi’s latest Insights Report for the U.S., Apple leads the North American mobile ad impressions with a 46% market share, and growth increasing by 4.1% from the previous quarter. The Android platform, meanwhile, has a 43.6% market share, and grew at a faster rate (5.4%) during the quarter. 

“It’s a validation of a lot of other trends we’re seeing in the market place,” Taimour Azizuddin, global insights analyst at InMobi, tells Marketing Daily. “When we look at the market share side of things, Apple and Android are continuing to increase, while RIM is continuing to show declines.”

The data, which comes from InMobi’s mobile ad network from September to November 2012, showed that Apple continued to lead the market when it comes to overall manufacturer ad impressions, with a 46% market share. Among Android device makers, Samsung had a 17% market share and HTC had an 8% market share. 

Among devices, Apple took the top three spots in terms of share of impressions, with the iPhone (27.5%) well ahead of the iPod (11.5%) and the iPad (7%). Amazon’s Kindle Fire came in fourth with 2% share of impressions. 

“Amazon is slowly but surely making a rise in market share,” Azizuddin says. “That’s [a testament to] the continuing popularity of the Kindle device. Last quarter, the Amazon Kindle wasn’t on the list. Now, it’s number four.”

For Windows’ mobile platform, which just recently launched at the data collection period, there were minor gains, though Azizuddin says the platform has a long way to go before threatening the top two. Of all of the manufacturers included in the report, only BlackBerry manufacturer RIM dropped its share of impressions over the previous quarter, continuing a downward cycle for the company, particularly in North America.

“It’s been declining steadily for the past several months,” Azizuddin says, noting that the company still has strength in global markets. “But, across the board, we’re seeing a downward trend with RIM and we have been seeing that for quite some time.”