Android and iPhone Grab Share from Competition

In its recently published Mobile Metrics Report, AdMob said growth in requests from devices running the Android and iPhone operating systems continued to outpace other platforms in March, despite the relatively limited number of devices in the market.

The comparison of Android to iPhone in the March 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics report is based on requests for AdMob ads on the mobile Web and in applications from the HTC Dream (G1) and the iPhone in the United States.

AdMob is a mobile advertising platform that serves more than 5.9 billion mobile banner and text ads per month across a wide range of leading mobile Websites and applications. AdMob stores and analyzes handset and operator data from every ad request in its network to optimize ad serving. Each month, the Mobile Metrics Report aggregates this data to provide insights into major trends in the mobile ecosystem.

AdMob said the application stores for both the Android and iPhone platforms have significantly influenced the increase in market share for the two platforms. Indeed, in March, more than half of Android and iPhone requests came from applications, AdMob said.

In the first five months after the launch of the Android Market in the United States—November 2008 to March 2009—Android requests increased an average of 47 percent per month. In the first five months following the launch of the App Store in the United States—July 2008 to November 2008—requests from the iPhone increased an average of 88 percent per month.

Other highlights from the March 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report include:

• The HTC Dream (Google G1) generated 72 million requests, giving it a 2 percent share of the overall U.S. market in March.

• In the United States in March, the HTC Dream (G1) was the No. 10 overall device and the No. 4 smartphone, after the iPhone, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Pearl.

• The Android OS now has 6 percent of the U.S. smartphone market and is tied with Palm as the fourth-largest OS.

• The iPhone generated eight times more U.S. requests than Android in March. The iPhone platform in total (iPhone and iPod touch) worldwide generated 23 times more requests than Android.