Android is making steady gains in mobile ad market share, accounting for 6 percent of all mobile ad requests measured by AdMob in its latest March metrics (full report embedded below). That puts it neck and neck with the Palm OS, compared to a 5 percent /7 percent share split in favor of Palm just one month before.. Windows Mobile Devices also saw a share decline from 13 percent to 11 percent, while Blackberry’s RIM OS gained a point to 22 percent, and the iPhone stayed the same at 50 percent.
AdMob measures ad requests from both mobile browsers and mobile apps, thus its numbers are a good proxy for mobile Web usage (minus paid apps which don’t serve ads, of course). On a device level, the Android G1 (HTC Dream) actually overtook the Palm Centro, becoming the No. 4 smartphone in terms of Web usage in the U.S. (after the iPhone, the Blackberry 8300, and Blackberry 8100).
But the iPhone still dwarfs Android. As a point of comparison, AdMob measured 72 million ad requests for Android in March, 2009 versus 607 million for the iPhone in the U.S. Wordlwide, the iPhone had 995 million ad requests, and if you combine it with the iPod touch the total grows to 1.66 billion.
But is this even a fair comparison? The number of iPhones out there outnumber Android phones by nearly 20 to one (21 million iPhones have been sold to date, compared to estimates of about one million for the G1). Given these ratios, the disparity in Web usage measured by Admob makes sense. As more Android phones are introduced, that should help its numbers.
One major driver of ad requests on both platforms has been the proliferation of standalone apps. Admob measured the growth in ad requests following the launch of each app store on Android and on the iPhone, and found that the growth rate for the iPhone was 88 percent a month versus 47 percent for the Android. But both outgrew other platforms by a wide margin.
Once the Palm Pre comes out and the Blackberry App Store gains more traction, it will be interesting to see whether the relative strength of the iPhone and Android continue.
Admob Metrics March 2009 – Get more Information Technology
Given that the Palm OS has been discontinued and is to be replaced with Palm’s WebOS for the Pre and new devices, I expect to see a sharp drop off in Palm OS’s market share and a pick up in WebOS, RIM, and Android as users switch away. Android’s problem is a lack of handset diversity. If the Pre delivers and is priced competitively, I would not be surprised to see WebOS encroach on the iPhone’s territory.
Once they work out the Android kinks on the G1 I’m sure we will see “handset diversity” later this year. I was very pleased with the Android OS and look forward to seeing how it develops.
palm and winmo will make comeback with their new lauches that will be in their post stylus era.
iPhone
NOT
IPhone
Don’t let marketers and advertisers tell you how to write. Resist, sheeple!!!!
Baa, Baa
I’m with you Zach. I hate it when people spell eBay as Ebay and MySpace as Myspace.
Ebay Myspace Iphone
@devstorm I don’t understand. You suggest Android’s problem is handset diversity relative to the Pre and iPhone? Um, those are single handset devices – i.e. proprietary. In my view, the biggest problem and advantage for Android will be handset diversity. Good news: lots of very cool hardware coming out over the next few months. Bad news: lots of DIFFERENT hardware for developers like us to contend with. We won’t have as hard a time as RIM, Windows Mobile or Symbian developers have, but man – it is going to be a pain. Working with iPhone is SOOOOO easy – one form factor is soooo nice.
Anyway, the numbers Admob states (i.e. 1 million sold) are completely wrong. There are than a million G1s in the UK alone. The US numbers are MUCH bigger, not to mention Germany. When cupcake is released all of the handset makers will release their new hardware. Good news for users, bad news for us.
Alexander Muse (Big in Japan)
No doubt Android is a solid platform — the G1 just does not have the wow factor that many people were looking for. I absolutely look forward to seeing what’s on the horizon in terms of Android devices. Agree with you that it makes it tougher for developers though.
I’d say that it can also make it harder for consumers – sometimes too much choice becomes a problem. I’m a supporter of increasing consumer selection, but with technological advances like the iPhone, I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed. In a retail store, looking for phones, there are probably 10 different blackberry models, 10 different “standard” phones, 20 headsets to pick from, and a slew of other things around the place. Then, you get the choice of a single phone, and you know it costs more, but there’s no confusion.
I’m afraid that the Android won’t stand out nearly as much as the iPhone does in a store today. I am NOT questioning it’s software or technological power, but rather just simplicity of the choice.
Also, the 1 million number is coming from a press release T-Mobile put out indicating they sold more than 1 million since launch. Some reporters are taking this to mean they have sold 1 million. We track unique users scanning barcodes and know that there are lots more than 1 million.
bugger.. go suck goog
As for your false insight on complexity of Symbian development versus these others, you need to get out more. Android is an easy entry for those without much insight IMHO. Its a cool loss lead for Google to achive more ad revenue at the expense of the small devloper who thinks they might make a go on top of Google… may AndWords is a better call?
That’s tremendous growth for one device (in the US).
How does this compare with Blackberry AppStore? Any data on adoption for Blackberry applications in the market?
Curious what people think of the actual stats here…I think they are interesting, but not all that relevant. Admob’s stats are only as good as their network (which they fully acknowledge). What are other ways to correctly determine OS market share?
Opera does a good State of the Mobile Web report, but again their numbers are biased based on those who have downloaded Opera Mini.
Who will be the next comscore/mmetrics? Issue with all of these services is that there is a certain set of built-in bias in the data. What’s next?
Taken with a grain of salt!
But, they are probably good references. It is difficult at best to get solid numbers from anyone. Apple doesn’t let anyone know anything with respect to sales for example.
My take away is that there is solid business in the iPhone end of the mobile universe, less so elsewhere. Sales numbers and such that I have seen corroborate the essential points.
Read critically!
More iPhone love? I was sitting next to my virus killer dude last night chasing trojans. We compared his iPhone with my 2-year old N95 (Symbian). I had better speakers (much), better video (that’s our stuff) and a better camera. He had touch screen and farts apps. IPhone wins again, I guess.
It was like the P910 that I used before getting the iPhone 2G, which I still use. What did I do with it? Not much. Sure, I could do lots, but it was such a pain. Not the iPhone is actually replacing a laptop for many people when away from the office. When was that possible before?
The iPhone is not the end all be all, but it is a solid product for most people. I have no iFart apps, although I do have the Stanley bubble level.
I keep seeing 1 million as the number of G1s sold (http://blog.tel...id-phones-sold/).
But I’m certainly curious — my partner and I have just launched an Android app (RecallCheck — http://www.agor...m/products.html) so we’ll be keeping a close watch on G1 sales and Android devices generally.
Regarding the Admob data, the question is, is it representative. One way to get a sense of this is to compare it to other data sources.
This is good news for google, proving once again how smart companies run by smart peopel always come out ahead http://iamned.com/blog the stock should see $700 soon
How can you compare iPhone and Android or better yet T-Mobile G1?
iPhone has been out for what 2years now and Android OS that is T-mobile g1 for 6 months.
Sorry but the stats above are like Apple to Oranges
And Symbian are out for ages, it actually walked among dinosours!!! I believe.
Apparently we can’t compare any mobile OS for that matter.
What did happen to Windows Mobile? It was very popular once (just behind symbian os).
Microsoft need to provide it’s own hardware with an amerliorated version of windows mobile (7?) to show the world what it’s capable of.
Otherwise, they will be chased out of this market.
iPhone is still miles ahead.. not surprises there! However, Google can feel a sigh of relief as there G1 Android phone hasn’t come to such a big waste, just selling over 1 million handhelds!
i imagine that will change next month once the palm pre is released?
March 2008 there was no android, do we really believe anything these guys say
Whatever.
One day you will all bow your knee to the big G.
Android has done pretty well, and the G1 has done a lot better than it deserved! I mean, Android 1.0 is very nice, and shows enormous promise, but it still has it’s rough spots. And as for the G1, compared with an iPhone 3G it is so clunky it is incredible it has sold so well.
Now a post-1.0 Android is landing aboard far more attractive hardware than the G1, coming from several hardware makers, and pushed by several operators. I’m sure that in the next few months, the numbers for Android are going to become REALLY impressive.
We are thinking about releasing an app that would allow you to process credit card transactions from your phone anywhere you have a cell phone signal – we are inclining toward the iphone, but RIM seems to have more serious business users. Remarks? COmments? Ideas?
The iPhone is a simple choice.. but as the word “open source” and “open network” becomes part of the average consumer’s vocabulary, Apple’s business model just won’t work.
i have an iphone, totally love it/cant live without it. i’m a little curious about android but i doubt that i will ever switch, i’m iphone loyal. one thing to be aware tho, since phones are becoming like laptops, is mobile security. take a look at the mobile security tips on justaskgemalto.com, with identity theft and crime on the rise, its just smart to be cautious of these things and protect yourself.
Our Crisp Wireless Index (http://www.cris...lytics/cw_index) shows much greater parity between iPhone and Blackberry when it comes to mobile web browsing. Looking at just where mobile ads are served gives a slightly skewed perspective based on targeting, etc.
Not very surprising to me that the iPhone is the leader in US Operating systems market share. There really is no other software that can compare. All they can try to do is mimic the iPhone now and still Apple has better features.