U.S. Android traffic growing steadily since app store launch: AdMob
April 24, 2009
Android operating system on mobile phone
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 market, according to AdMob's March 2009 Mobile Metrics Report.
The application stores for both platforms have significantly influenced this growth. In March, more than half of Android and iPhone requests came from applications.
"Android is growing fast and has made an impact since its launch," said Mike Fyall, marketing manager at AdMob, San Mateo, CA. "The HTC Dream (G1) generates 2 percent of our U.S .requests and is now the No. 4 smartphone behind the iPhone, Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Pearl.
"But iPhone growth was much faster than Android," he said.
Android traffic in the U.S. grew an average of 47 percent per month since it launched five months ago while iPhone traffic in the U.S grew an average of 88 percent per month in the five months following the launch of its App Store.
In the U.S. in March, the HTC Dream (G1) was the No. 10 overall device and the No. 4 smartphone.
The Android operating system now has 6 percent of the U.S. smartphone market and is tied with Palm as the fourth-largest operating system.
The iPhone generated 8 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.
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 U.S.
The launch dates of the two application stores roughly correspond to the launch of AdMob's in-application ad units.
"Android growth accelerated after our launch of ad units in apps at the end of January, which likely reflects strong consumer usage of applications on the Android platform," Mr. Fyall said. "The strong usage of applications across both the Android and iPhone platforms represents a clear opportunity for mobile marketers to connect with consumers where they are their spending time -- applications.
"Marketers should look at mobile applications as a valuable way to reach and engage with consumers on their mobile phones across platforms," he said. "More than half of the Android and iPhone ad requests in AdMob's network in March 2009 came from applications."