AdMob serves north of 10 billion ads per month to more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications. Thus, although its data is about ad rather than page impressions, it can be taken as a pretty robust indicator of how web usage habits are developing and changing over time. Android is the big standout of its most recent figures, with Google loyalists now constituting a cool 42 percent of AdMob's smartphone audience in the US. With the
EVO 4G and
Galaxy S rapidly approaching, we wouldn't be surprised by the little green droid stealing away the US share crown, at least until Apple counters with its next slice of magical machinery. Looking at the global stage, Android has also recently skipped ahead of Symbian, with a 24 percent share versus 18 percent for the
smartphone leader. Together with BlackBerry OS, Symbian is still the predominant operating system in terms of
smartphone sales, but it's interesting to see both falling behind in the field of web or application usage, which is what this metric seeks to measure. Figures from Net Applications (to be found at the
TheAppleBlog link) and
ArsTechnica's own mobile user numbers corroborate these findings.
posted March 29th 2010 10:18AM
Just wait til windows mobile 7 series is out, I am STOKED I want to see iphone get put in it's place!
@NickyxLove
WP7 is just a iPhone copy :/
@NickyxLove
You should get out more. It's just a phone. It's a pretty cool one though :)
Honestly, what makes a person harbor resentment towards an inanimate object?
@ebgolfin It's not resentment towards the object as much as it is the policies put in place by Apple. The closed nature of the phone and the restrictions placed upon its' users is where the resentment is. How anyone can willfully partake in and enjoy the DRM, removal of apps from the app store and lastly purposeful hobbling of the OS is beyond me. With Android there is choice where the once was none. Apple has seen the writing on the wall, why do you think they came out and sued HTC and by doing so by proxy suing Google and Android based products? FEAR and they are showing it.
@Darkseider
The problem here is that what you're saying really isn't correct. I have found many comments on this site from people claiming to know about Apple's policies, when the reality is that they are painfully wrong. There is a lot of assumption that goes on, likely fueled by internet rumors or memes.
I own an iPhone. If I never looked at gadget blogs, I would have ZERO idea that the App Store policies are "draconian". Why would I? I have tons of apps on my phone, each one I searched for and found on the App Store. I have yet to find a function that I am without because of Apple's policies. If you ask any normal person who owns an iPhone if they feel "restricted" with it, I can promise you that you won't get the response you're looking for.
We can sit here and argue about Apple's policies regarding software, but the reality is that Apple's platform has garnered the most support by major software publishers. On the iPhone, you feel overwhelmed by the variety of available software. Are their policies any worse than Nintendo's? I like that company, even if they won't allow porn games on their systems.
@Darkseider
Really? Removal of apps? You know, when Android catches on, I am going to laugh my ass off watching the bikini/photo-shoot apps explode on Android market. Or its share of fart apps.
@onlymyrailgun There's already a shit-ton of fart apps on Android, something fanboys were saying would NOT happen.
And ebgolfn is right... the only people who feel that Apple's iphone constitutes some "draconian closed" system are Android fanboys. Most consumers don't feel that way.
@Kinte Kunta
It might have something to do with WinMo being able to use different browsers, though. I wonder if a WinMo user browsing with Fennec or Opera mobile registers the same as mobile IE with AdMob.
Way to keep it classy. Another 17 yr old forum crasher.
@Darkseider Slight edge?
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8
Yay competition! No matter what you're a fan of, competition is always good news. :)
@TheBennettBrigade
Fennec's only in alpha for WinMo last I checked, and has since been cancelled entirely.
Surfing the web on webOS is second only to the iPhone.
Whoah apple is doing well. Its basically competing with 30 odd different Andriod versions and Rim, Web os and WinMo. Say all you want about apple but they sure made heck of a difference on the way we look at smartphones nowadays.
To me, this just shows that a lot of iPhone owners dropped the 'free, ad-supported' versions of their favorite apps and upgraded to a non-ad-supported version!
As I would guess most of those ad-exposures are from in-app advertisement!
And Android users have not gotten that far yet.. LOL!
I'm really surprised about how much the Nokia N70 is still being used, it's an ancient POS phone.
And what's also interesting is how much more traffic the average iPhone user makes compared to others, i wonder what the trick is there.
http://iphone-versus-android.com
iPhone versus Android.
Pick your favorite and see if you're on the winning team!
means two things
there are less then half as many android phones out in the wild,
and their users are using their phones to browse the web
far more often then iphone users,
and it means iphone users most likely never leave the apple closed environment
I remember reading tons of posts about how you guys "don't want to be like everyone else and use an iPhone".
Once there are more Android sets in circulation, will you then have to move on to a lesser known platform so that you can continue to feel unique?
@ebgolfin
Or customize it, 'cause it's, you know, open. :-)
@Cin Well there is still Opera, which on alot of newer WinMo handsets from HTC is the default browser for WinMo. So the question once again stands. Are these stats only counting Internet Explorer on WinMo, or are they counting Internet Explorer and Opera + others?
Don't be so sure that android will take the lead. Remeber that the iPad also uses iPhone OS.
@Hypex
The graph is smartphones. The iPad isn't a smartphone.
No wonder why Apple is suiting HTC lol, after looking that chart.
iDroid ... Now, that would be cool. The best features of both systems. Apple & Google join forces to take over the world¬_¬ !
@pankomputerek
That would be..... I don't even....
;)
I've ever believed MW web browsers are less than RIM and WebOS
Does changing my WebOS phone's user agent to "iphone" effect these type of rankings?
I'd be more interested in stats regarding data usage on provider networks. If a significant number of iPhone users are like me, then it's less about looking on X website as it is about firing up an app I downloaded.
E.g. I don't go to imdb.com, I use their app. I don't go to wikipedia.org, I use an app. Same for Engadget and Mac Daily News. Lots of the bigger sites have gone the same route, so that could affect the stats if their iPhone visitors use an associated app instead. Granted, I don't know how many of them use AdMob, so how large the effect is, I can't say. But, that just makes me want to see data usage stats all the more, to clear up the uncertainty.
I have a Droid and a Blackberry(work phone). I only use the BB for browsing if I absolutely have to, the broswer is horrible. Normally I have my Droid on me and I just whip it in front of everybody to do some quick Googles.
@Googlesucks
Nice comment. "I don't think Android has the market share that everyone says it does. What? I'm not the crazy one." and "Things will be different 'in the future.'" Thanks for clearing that up, I was really worried that all progress has stopped and things would stay like this forever.
Who cares about US only statistics. Here is a link for better statistical information http://gigaom.com/2010/03/18/the-mobile-os-market/
Best of luck !
my bad, this is web usage ....
Ha, oops, I'm a part of the drop in webOS ads at the end of August. I've been using an ad-blocker since then. :D
This looks like the beginning of another lost opportunity for apple... unless their lawyers can stop that green line from busting through the top of that chart.
Holy schmoly ! It appears there is a ton of RIM and Nokia smartphones waiting to be switched (http://sonofgeektalk.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/whose-os-you-surf-on/). I, for one, have never traded my old N95 for an iPhone on worries of voice quality and on the fear that my battery might run flat from all the foursquaring just when I need to make that important call, but I will definitely be getting an iPad.
However, I am surprised Android is so close - their devices numbers are TINY !
@Gianni Well, RIM has the world's second-largest share of smartphone sales (20 percent) after Symbian/Nokia; iPhone accounts for 14 percent and WinMo has 9 percent. Android is popping, but it only accounts for 4 percent of sales (the chart, by the way, can be found at http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/smartphone-iphone-sales-2009-gartner/). Since sales is what counts, RIM and Apple have major presences around the world.
One must note that what is likely affecting RIM's mobile traffic numbers is the fact that all traffic goes through its servers in Canada. Also, the fact that it is still largely corporate (plenty of old Crackberrys floating around) means that there is both depression of numbers and also low numbers because of the type of users that predominate. Which is why RIM is pursuing the consumer dollar.
Essentially, the study is rubbish.
There's an obvious explanation on this. Data plans are usually optional for non-iPhone/Android phones. So people using S60/Winmo phones usually don't get the data plan, and thus use the data connectivity more conservatively.
@pika2000 Right, but the # of users of each OS that are surfing the web is the whole point of the study. It's not necessarily talking about sales, although you might be able to infer a bit about that based on the rapid rise of Android on the chart.
Every carrier requires you to have a data plan for any new "smartphone" and both iphone and android need data plans to work correctly. this is pretty good indication that android is on the rise. It wont be long before it overtakes iphone os
I love how Engadget editors throw something up like this and then let us rip. They know we will. They were the kids who loved watching two Betta fish or two scorpions go at each other when they were growing up. You're the mean kids with magnifying glasses, Engadget, and we are your ant colony. But dammit, I love reading your stuff, so I will continue putting up with you.
Do we have Adblock Plus for mobiles yet? Will mobile FF have it?
Go Android woooooooooooooo!
remind us again, who owns admob? GOOGLE? what else does google do? ANDROID? mind. blown.
I wonder why Engadget revolves around the whole Mobile OS stuff's with respect to US alone ?? commo'n man there are lotta countries other than US in this world :D and there is a beautiful OS called Symbian which supports multitasking even in its basic models :D
@techbuddy : Cause if it is not in US, it does not exist :D
@techbuddy well, Symbian may support surfing, and it does, but it makes so damn harder to use it that Joe Sixpack doesn't, while he does surf on an iPhone. I use 4sq on my Symbian N95, but it takes a damn nerd... that's all this study says IMHO
Lol funny stats. Suprising that Android is gaining that much. In London and Southern England where I live I know ONE person with an Android phone (that good ol' dusty G1).
Atleast 20 of my friends like me have iPhone's for everyday life and Blackberrys for work. Which is handy considering we all use Ping to send free push notifcation messages to each other. I get 500 free texts per month and use about 50 of those sending to non-iphone people.
I'd much rather see webOS at Android's position.
Does anyone else find Android's UI ugly?