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Apple’s iPhone corralled more than half of the mobile ad impressions on smartphones, while smartphones using Google’s Android operating system powered the platform past Research In Motion’s BlackBerry in mobile ad hits.
That’s according to the fresh July stats from Millennial Media, which remains one of the top independent mobile ad platforms standing after Apple bought Quattro Wireless and Google landed AdMob earlier this year. Millennial’s ads reach about 63 million monthly users, or 81 percent of the U.S. mobile Web.
The iPhone gobbled more than half of the ad impressions at 55 percent, down from 56 percent through June. Android surged to 19 percent from 11 percent in June to overtake the BlackBerry, whose plot was 16 percent, down 1 percent from June.
This marks the first time Android hit No. 2 since Millennial began tracking the numbers in August 2009, according to Steve McCord, head of product development at Millennial.
Mobile ad growth on Android dovetails with reports from leading researchers such as Gartner and Nielsen, which saw Android smartphones overtaking the BlackBerry platform for the second quarter.
Powering the ad growth on Android is the Motorola Droid, which moved into the top three in July’s Top 20 Mobile Phones with 5 percent impression share. The Droid was joined by the Motorola Cliq Android handset in this list.
McCord pointed out other stats that those interested may see in the full report should they download it (or see a snapshot of the pie charts in this post on Fortune).
Android ad requests grew 47 percent month over month. RIM BlackBerry app usage grew the most from June to July and now stands at 11 percent of U.S. developer platform usage.
iPad ad requests soared 327 percent month-over-month. Remember, that platform has only been around since April, so the growth is solid but not a total shocker; it didn’t have a big base.
While Apple’s iPhone may have lost a touch of ad impression share, Millennial found that Apple ad requests increased 24 percent.
What will be interesting to watch is what happens when/if Apple’s iAd mobile ad platform gets rolling.
Anecdotal reports in the Wall Street Journal (paywall) indicate Apple has been a bit controlling about the creative process around the in-application ads its presides over for apps in its App Store.
This could prove a problem if the impasses are not properly mitigated.
While tight control may be acceptable for the iPhone hardware and software, developers and advertisers could choose Google and AdMob over iAd if they feel Apple is being too intrusive.