Data shows major shift in device usage
Mobile advertising network AdMob has been releasing its stats for two years now, in which it tracks data such as which handsets are making the most requests to its ad servers, which OS drives the most usage, and which territories see the most action on its network.
So after two years of this, the company decided to have a look at what it has learnt over that period, and come up with some headline findings looking at overall usage and handset and platform data.
Amongst other findings it has reported that the number of monthly ad requests in the AdMob network increased 6.3x over the past 2 years from 1.6 billion in September 2007 to 10.2 billion in September 2009 – although the September 2009 figure was itself down 3% month over month.
64 countries sent more than 10 million requests in September 2009, compared to only 16 countries in September 2007. 14 of those 64 countries generated 100 million ad requests or more. And more than 15,000 mobile web sites and applications requested ads in September 2009, up from 4,308 publishers who had reqested ads in September 2008.
What about handsets?
One revealing change is that in September 2007 all but two of the top ten handsets were either a Nokia or Sony Ericsson model. Now there are just three devices from those vendors (the N95, K800i and 5800XpressMusic) In there place there are phones from RIM, HTC and Apple.
If you take the UK only, then there have been some changes over the past two years. In September 2007, the Sony Ericsson K800i was the top device in the UK. In September 2008 it dropped to number two, after the Nokia N95, and in September 2009 it dropped to number seven on the list, after the iPhone, HTC Dream and Nokia N95.
In the UK, the iPhone and the iPod Touch are between them generating about 57% of all requests to AdMob's network, with the next most intensive device being the HTC Dream, at 3.2% of requests made.
RIM and HTC each have three models in the Top 20 in September 2009, compared with no handsets in the Top 20 in 2008 or 2007. Sony Ericsson has 4 handsets in the Top 20 in September 2009, down from 10 in September 2008.