iPhone, Android deadlocked for top mobile ad share

Android and the iPhone OS remain deadlocked in a heated battle for market share in the realm of mobile advertising.

Also read: 300,000 Android phones activated per day, Claims Google

According to the latest figures released by mobile advertising firm Millennial Media, Android and iOS each accounted for 38 per cent of "ad impressions" the company recorded from U.S. smartphones last month. The only other smartphone operating system to even come close to iOS and Android was RIM's BlackBerry OS, which accounted for 19 per cent of smartphone ad impressions recorded by Millennial. Windows Mobile and Symbian each accounted for a mere two per cent of ad impressions recorded in the smartphone market.

Millennial also says that Apple devices accounted for 25 per cent of all ad impressions recorded on the network, as the iPhone (14 per cent of impressions), iPod Touch (nine per cent of impressions) and the iPad (two per cent of impressions) accounted for three of the 10 most popular devices on the network. Other popular devices include the Motorola Droid (7.5 per cent of ad impressions), the BlackBerry Curve (seven per cent of impressions) and the Samsung Freeform feature phone (2.5 per cent of impressions).

Looking toward the future, Millennial also surveyed applications developers and asked them what if any new platforms they plan to support in 2011. Android was the most popular choice, as 29 per cent of publishers said they planned to add support for it in 2011, followed by the iPad (20 per cent) and Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 7 (20 per cent). Android applications accounted for 54 per cent of the revenue generated by mobile applications on Millennial's network last month, followed by iPhone OS applications, which accounted for 39 per cent of revenue generated by mobile applications on the network last month.

Android's rapid rise as a popular operating system has been one of the biggest stories of the mobile world in 2010. Since January alone, Android has doubled its total market share in the mobile operating system market, and devices based on Android accounted for a 44 per cent of smartphones purchased in the third quarter of 2010, according to research firm ChangeWave. Additionally, the Nielsen Company said this fall that Android had become the popular operating system among recent smartphone buyers, with RIM's BlackBerry OS and the iPhone OS trailing behind in a second-place tie. Research firm Gartner has projected that by the end of the year sales of Android devices will exceed those based on the BlackBerry OS and the iPhone OS, meaning that Android will trail only Symbian as the world's most-used mobile operating system.

Since its debut in the fall of 2007, Android has appeared on numerous popular smartphones for several carriers including Verizon's Motorola Droid and Sprint's HTC Evo 4G. Next year Google plans on releasing a new version of the Android OS that is catered specifically to tablet computers.

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