• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 26, 2013

Android and iOS both gained share at the expense of BlackBerry and Windows Phone on Millennial Media’s mobile ad network in the third quarter. Android’s share increased to 56% from 52% a year ago, and iOS grew to 37% from 34%.

Conversely, Windows Phone dropped to 1% from 5%, while struggling BlackBerry slipped to 6% from 8%.
 
With the release of Apple’s iOS 7 platform in September, impressions from sports and lifestyle apps jumped six times their average volume in the first week, while those from communications apps tripled.
 
Smartphones overall accounted for almost three-quarters (73%) of all impressions, down slightly from a year ago, while connected devices accounted for 24%.
 
When it comes to manufacturers, Apple was again the largest device maker represented on Millennial’s network, driving 35% of impressions. Samsung had almost 30%, while struggling BlackBerry accounted for 7%. The iPhone alone made up 21% share of impressions, while the Samsung Galaxy 5 claimed 12%, followed by the iPad, with 8%. Samsung overall had seven of the top 20 devices on the Millennial platform.
 
Looking at mobile content use, games were the top app category in terms of impressions, followed by social media, communications, and productivity and tools. Millennial’s quarterly report highlighted the sports vertical, which broke into the top 10 app categories in Q3. The majority (60%) of sports apps were soccer-specific, such as for a team, league or tournament.
 
That finding bodes well for developers creating apps around the upcoming World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The Millennial study also spotlighted recent research from comScore showing that certain content segments such as photos and maps skew heavily toward mobile. Specifically, 92% and 86%, of time spent in those areas occurs on a mobile device.
 
By contrast, 75% of time spent on Web portals still takes place on the desktop, along with 68% of time on health sites, and 62% of news and information sites. More than half (54%) of time spent in the online retail category still takes place on the desktop.
 
On the advertising side, Millennial also shared data on click-through rates for mobile ads in different app categories and across smartphones and tablets. Ads in shopping and retail apps, for example, saw more than four times the click rate of those on tablets. Other research, however, has shown that tablets generally drive more transactions than phones.
 
Other categories including travel, books and reference apps showed higher click rates on tablets. Travel has twice the click rate on tablets than smartphones, for example, as people use the devices to research trips and compare airline and hotel prices.