AdMob: Smartphone traffic is up in a big way

By on Mar 25, 2010 at 1:42 PM
News March 25, 2010

smartphone-traffic-growth

No, you haven’t been imagining things: everyone and their grandma has indeed been using a smartphone to surf the web. From February 2009 to February 2010, AdMob tracked an impressive 193% increase in absolute traffic from smartphones. As it presently stands, or more accurately as it stood at the end of February, the iPhone OS reigned supreme at gobbling up data with 50% stake of AdMob’s smartphone traffic while Android and Symbian came in second and third with 24% and 18% respectively. RIM’s BlackBerry OS didn’t fare too well (surprise, surprise) at 4%, but that was still enough for it to escape the utter embarrassment felt by Windows Mobile which saw its 2% matched by the “Others”. Speaking of others, feature phones are using more data than ever with absolute traffic up 31% while MIDs like the iPod touch, Nintendo DSi and Sony PSP really took off with a gain of 403%, again, in absolute terms. Where these numbers will be a year from now is anyone’s guess, but with smartphones continuing to pick up steam and tablet devices being release at a fast and furious pace, its seems safe to say that next year’s numbers make these look minuscule.

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  • burnet

    RIP Palm

  • yourmom

    lol @ RIM….FAIL

    • crazylegs

      YOURmom – you are obviously one of those people who take any stat at face value without question. Look at the admob methodology and you will see it is heavily skewed towards iPhone – as all they are monitoring is their ad network which is primarily iPhone ads and apps. This has been discussed adnauseum. It means virtually nothing for mkt share – and has no bearing on RIM failing. Educate yourself before writing stupid posts.

      • mommysays

        You’re obviously one of those people that took my comment way too seriously…lol. It’s just poking fun at RIM..and you got all defensive about it. FAIL.

      • crazylegs

        judging from the popular vote, your comment was a failure. just trying to educate the neophytes.

      • yourmom

        And I would imagine you feel special now, bravo…lol.

  • B Jilissen

    If you factor in RIM’s data compression, RIM’s share would increase to approx 20%.

    • crazylegs

      Doubtful it’s that high, but not nearly as low as admob would lead you to believe given the methodology and ONLY monitoring their own iphone ad/in-app network.

      • Tdot34

        Agreed, poor methodology and the fact that RIM uses data compression. When RIM has 21% of worldwide smart phone market share, and Apple has 15% market share, yet the data looks like this, you know something is bogus.

        Same goes for Nokia which has 47% of worldwide smartphone market share yet only 18% data share….

  • JM

    The numbers here seem pretty inaccurate. I have not paid a great deal of attention to these reports but they don’t seem like a true reflection of the devices actually in use.

  • (The real Jarrett) Jarrett

    RIM would definately be higher than this. Sure it isn’t from the storm(s) but I have known plenty of people who do many things online with their Blackberry’s.

    • StevenGlansburg

      Besides streaming radio occasionaly, I have found that blackberrys suck ass for online things aside from quick score updates, checking bank accounts, reading the headlines…. however is easy, so data capability is good for that one thing

      • StevenGlansburg

        meant to say TETHERING is easy, i don’t know why that isn’t showing up… ironically I was tethering when I wrote that….weird

      • Tdot34

        True story, hopefully the new browser improves this. I love my BB, but sometimes surfing the network for info on the go can be a pain.

        However, one thing I have realized about iPhone users, well my friends anyways, is that they use their iPhone browsers even when there is a computer in front of them. Not sure if it’s an Apple user “hey look at me” thing. But I only use BB internet when I need to look something up and no alternative is available.

  • Steel

    You think that’s impressive, wait until Verizon actually gets an Android phone with semi-modern hardware. Then things will really take off.

    • AusFest

      Yeah your right, even with droid being verizons top device right now, lots of people are holding out for bigger and better. Also with AT&T getting some android handsets im betting this graph next year will look a whole lot different.

    • ChocoTaco

      STFU Steel, the DROID is the best droid hardware out there. Quit being an apple fanboy

      • Scott

        “the DROID is the best droid hardware out there”

        What I think you meant to say was this:

        “the DROID is the best Android hardware out there”

        Which is not correct, anymore… The N1, Incredible, Desire and EVO are better Android Phones.

        But, yes, the Droid, is the best Droid, since Verizon has the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris (which are the only two “Droid” phone available).

        For someone who’s on BGR often, you should know that the Droid is a phone and Android is the OS.

      • steel

        Um.. no. Although I would have the iPhone if it were on Verizon, I actually need my phone to make calls, so I haven’t sold my soul to AT&T.

        Or did “out there” mean on Verizon? Cause that would be true. Unfortunately.

      • StevenGlansburg

        IMO, find a phone that will work as a wireless hotstop and get an ipod touch. If I could only figure that out on my 9700, I’d be happy….because let’s face Apple is never going to get it ALL right. They are going to keep leaving important features out so they can get you to buy the new model next year. I guess that is the nature of technology, but Apple better step up it’s game because eventually the general market is going to expect more thanks to HTC and maaaaaaaybe Motorola.

  • Michael N

    yawnn,.,,,, another pro iPhone post with no value by BGR….

    • Dabluest

      Jeez, sour grapes much?

  • Jared

    Can someone explain to me why BB and Win Mo’s data is “embarrassing”? Because Iphone users are in a different demographic and surf the web more? I don’t get it… Now if these numbers represented market share then I would consider it embarrassing, but of course we all know that’s not the case ha ha.

  • FunkyG

    Well, looking at these stats it looks like people really miss not having flash on their iPhones…

    • Jared

      .. but wouldn’t it be nice to have Apple actually listen to their loyal customers and give them what they want. Instead of only doing whats convenient for themselves. Just a crazy thought

      • FunkyG

        Maybe it’s just the ( very ) vocal geeky minority on the tech blogs that are screaming for flash, and the average consumer couldn’t care less.

        It would seem the fact the iPhone is dominating the smartphone traffic category seems to back this up.

        Just a crazy thought

      • jonathan T

        Yep, thats what I’ve been saying all along. I for one like to have flash, but I’m part of the geeky tech crowd. Most non-tech folks I know with Iphones don’t even know what flash is. I can go as far as saying that we are just a fraction and whatever trashing we do is really just isolated to this particular minority.

      • StevenGlansburg

        I never really had a an urge to look at redtube while on my iphone. Additionally, if you wanna watch Hulu, email them and tell them to make an app, most other companies are starting to get the hint.

      • Alex

        Did you watch it in your mom’s basement?

      • MikeD

        Then they should go get an Android device if Flash is so critical. Apparently not.

        I swear you guys just can’t stand that Apple is doing well. They swear Apple is not listening but they just happen to be the 3rd most valuable company in the US?

        They obviously are listening.

        I wish people who have iPhones that bitch and moan like this just go to the other platforms and see if the grass is greener for them. If it is. Great, maybe then they can shut up already. Just be happy and end the hate.

      • Tdot34

        Where did you come up with Apple being the 3rd most valuable company in the US?

      • MikeD

        They were recently rated 3rd not long ago. Plus they are sitting on 40 Billion in cash to be used to buy companys or as they usually do invest in R&D.

        The point is business is fine for them just like it is for Google and RIM.

        They are among companies doing it right.

  • http://www.vlockbox.com Sanjay Maharaj

    A year from now, these numbers wlil be blown out, the rate at which smatphones are now being used it has nowhere but to go up and then factor in the ipad useage when it comes out soon, now you really talking. This is just the tip I think

  • flip1029

    *with a grain of salt*
    AdMob infiltrated the market and became a giant by providing ads for iPhone apps. They were incorporated in 2006 and just released cross platform support recently. May have something to do with the large market share. If you look at “smart phones” since their inception Symbian has a much large global market share. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone That’s changing, but it’s not as drastic as the graphic in this article shows.

  • V

    Wow…talk about misleading statistics.

    According to Comscore, the top three smartphone platforms as of the end of 2009 are: RIM (41.6%), Apple (25.3%), and Windows Mobile (18%).

    Admob is doing a great job of self promoting their business model, which is primarily ad placement in iPhone and Android apps.

    Stats mean nothing if taken out of context, which this story definitely did. It should be headlined as “Where Admob Placements Are Prevalent.”

    • V

      The Comscore numbers are for the US only.

      • http://www.smallfish-bigpond.com Kerensky97

        So it’s not much more reliable than data pulled from ads used by a company that specializes in iPhone ads?

        People need to focus on the fact that this study has nothing to do with sales or market share. Only that it measures what number of users view Admob ads.

  • Normm

    Android has 1/4 of the web requests. That’s a good sign.

  • MikeD

    The title of the article is “AdMob: Smartphone traffic is up in a big way”

    Meaning Smartphones in general are selling well. Why the hell do Fandroids come on here and turn it into an iPhone bashing session yet again.

    If the iPhone wasn’t the largest share guess what. The iPhone users wouldn’t give a damn. if you are happy with what you bought/invested in there is nothing to worry about. If you bought an Android phone because you want to brag “We are going to be #1 sometime in the future” then you are never going to be satisfied with anything you buy. Even when it is number one.

    Stay on topic and not on the iPhone/Apple hate.

    Smartphones will soon be the norm. The general public will be using them more and more.

  • Dara

    This doesn’t actually represent smartphone traffic, this is Admob’s client distribution and nothing more.

    Considering that they are a recent startup, and got bought out by Google 6 months ago, it’s really not surprising that they’re showing massive growth.

    It is surprising to see one company’s client distribution being extrapolated so stupidly.

  • BOYgarbageREPORT

    This is such a shit article because they leave the disclaimer out of the main page text and they throw it at the bottom. People actually are going to read the first page, assume that iPhones make up 50% of the phone surfing community. This is the same SHIT that was posted talking about how almost every BlackBerry user is going to get an iPhone. Just read the “disclaimer” and youll see AdMob’s reports are a reflection of who is affected by THEIR advertisements, not who is actually using the web in general.

    The usual caveats apply. Although AdMob serves up billions of annoying mobile ads each month, they are not evenly distributed among the platforms. As the small print at the bottom of the report puts it:

    “AdMob does not claim that this information will be necessarily representative of the mobile Web as a whole or of any particular country-market. AdMob’s traffic is driven by publisher relationships and may be influenced accordingly.”

    Way to go BGR keep feeding your readers GARBAGE……

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