AdMob Mobile Metrics

September 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

This month marks the two year anniversary of the Mobile Metrics report, our monthly look inside the traffic flowing through our network.  For this month’s feature we compare the top handsets in our network over the last three years.

Scanning the top US list, it is easy to see the dramatic change in devices and capabilities over the last year.  In September 2008, the Motorola RAZR was the top device  and the iPhone was the only touchscreen device in the Top 10. In September 2009, the list of the top 10 devices includes five with touchscreens, six with Wi-Fi capabilities, and six with application stores.  As we discussed in our report last April, these powerful devices are responsible for a much higher percentage of mobile usage than their share of handsets sold.

However feature phones like the Samsung R450 and Motorola RAZR V3 still represent 60 percent of our ad requests in the US.  The strong mobile Web usage on these feature phones is likely driven by unlimited data plans.

For those new to the Metrics report, I would encourage you to read this post that contains details on what the report is, why we do it, and how to think about the results.

Mike