AdMob Mobile Metrics

December 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

Today we released the December edition of our Mobile Metrics report, our monthly look at the data flowing through our network.  This month we look at several key metrics including manufacturer share, operating system share, top devices, and top smartphones for each region in our network.  At a glance, the data shows large regional differences in the devices that are accessing the mobile web.

Remember AdMob data is based on the usage of mobile sites and apps, which is very different than if you were to look at estimates of device sales from Gartner, IDC, or your favorite Wall Street analyst.  For those new to the Metrics report, visit this blog post for details on the report methodology.

Here are links to a couple additional Metrics blogs that have been posted since the November report was released:

* Mobile Browsing Trends from Quantcast – data on browsing on Internet sites from mobile devices
* Metrics Update: Android – updated Android statistics for December
* Another Huge Christmas for the iPod touch – geographic distribution of new iPod touch devices

Email your comments on the report to metrics@admob.com.  We unfortunately can’t respond to all emails, but your feedback is welcome and helps us shape future reports.

Mobile Browsing Trends from Quantcast

Quantcast, an online audience measurement company, released its network statistics last week on mobile browsing.  The content of the report is very similar to the usage data we share in the Metrics report and includes statistics on mobile operating systems, handset manufacturers, and other interesting tidbits.  However the data is based on mobile devices browsing the same Internet sites as those browsed by a computer, while AdMob data is based on traffic from mobile specific sites and applications.

The below chart of Operating System Share by Region is taken from page 13 of the report.

Interestingly, the highlights of the report are very similar to the trends we have seen in our network – dominant Apple share,  Android overtaking RIM in North America, the rapid growth of Droid – despite a different type of mobile browsing on a different set of publishers.  More report highlights can be found on page 2 of the report.

For more details download the comprehensive report from the Quantcast site or take a look at the TechCrunch article.

Mike

Metrics Update: Android

Just two months ago we outlined why we were bullish on the Android platform.  Since then the outlook has brightened even further.  Data from our network suggests several key themes over the last two months:

• Rapid growth: Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 97% from October to December. AdMob received over 1 billion ad requests from Android devices in Dec 09.
• Increased manufacturer diversity:  In October, 98% of requests came from HTC devices.  In December, 56% of requests were from HTC devices, 39% from Motorola devices, and 5% from Samsung.
• Increased device diversity: In December, 7 devices generated more than 3% of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Moment.  This is up from only 3 devices in October (HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero).
• Droid Invasion:  The Motorola Droid is already the leading Android handset in the AdMob network and generated 30% of requests in December.
• US leads Android adoption:  90% of Android traffic was in the US in December, up from 84% in October.  Top countries by requests are the US, UK, Germany, France, and Canada, respectively.

This chart of traffic by handset in our network pretty much sums it all up:

These statistics are based on the ad requests we receive from mobile sites and applications in the AdMob network.  Please visit this post for more info on how to interpret our statistics.

Another Huge Christmas for the iPod touch

Last December was the coming out party for the iPod touch and early data from mobile analytics companies, app developers, Amazon.com, and anecdotal evidence all suggests another hugely successful holiday season for this device.

AdMob’s usage data suggests that new iPod touch devices were responsible for a majority of the increase in App Store activity the day after Christmas.  Ad requests from iPod touches increased 96% on December 26 compared to the average from the week prior, while requests from iPhones only increased 12% over the same time frame.

In terms of actual devices, there was a 57% increase in the number of iPod touch devices used on December 26th compared to average daily usage of the week before Christmas.  Device growth was strong across the top markets, particularly in the UK.  This consistent worldwide performance is similar to the international expansion of Apple devices we highlighted in our last Metrics report.

The 57% increase in unique daily users is a combination of both new iPod touch users and existing users who were active on December 26th, so this doesn’t necessarily mean the number of iPod touches sold was that high a percentage of active iPod touches.  But the evidence does lead us to believe there were several million new iPod touch owners around the world this Christmas.  In the next Metrics report we’ll compare November and December data to get a more detailed look at the impact of holiday gifts.

Mike

Updated iPhone OS Stats

We received a couple requests recently for the distribution of the iPhone Operating System versions we see throughout our network.  The data below represents the percentage of worldwide traffic we saw from the iPhone and iPod touch from December 14-21st.

It shows that iPod touch users lag iPhone users in upgrading their OS; 97% of our iPhone traffic comes from 3.0 or higher, compared to only 68% of iPod touch traffic.

For developers working on Android applications, platform version might become even more important than it is for iPhone given the wide variety of handsets and capabilities already available.  Fortunately, the Android team has announced a device dashboard based on devices that visit the Android Market.  Visit the Android developer blog for details or the actual dashbaord for the most recent data.

November 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

For this month’s report we review some of the trends we have seen throughout 2009.  We discuss the rise of smartphones, increased WiFi usage, and the continued growth of the iPhone and Android platforms.

Apple is on track to sell over 40 million iPhone and iPod touches this year worldwide.  Although the US remains by far the largest market for Apple devices, we’ve seen faster growth of Apple users from outside the US.  In November, 50% of the unique iPhone and iPod touches that requested an AdMob ad were outside the US, compared to only 39% in January 2009.  The chart below shows user growth for the Top 10 countries by Apple device in the AdMob network.

The US and Canada show slower growth, although that’s likely due to a larger base of users to start the year.  Page 4 of the report shows the distribution of iPhone and iPod touch users by country.  These devices clearly have global appeal, as the recent launch in South Korea showed.

Keep in mind the chart above only represents devices that requested an ad on a given day.  Mobile operator KT claimed to have signed up 90k iPhone subscribers since the launch on Nov 28th, and our data certainly supports rapid adoption in the country.

Last December iPod touch traffic doubled the day after Christmas.  We’ll see what the effect of all of the new devices is this year soon.  Happy Holidays!

Mike

Great results from RIM

Today’s stellar earnings announcement from RIM is more evidence of continuing smartphone growth.  Despite growing competition, RIM sold more than 10 million devices in the quarter, a record for the company, with strong growth coming from outside of North America and in the consumer segment.

Last month (see the blog post below), we looked at the distribution of RIM handsets in the AdMob network and you can see evidence of the adoption of new RIM handsets.

As a reminder, the statistics we share in our Metrics Report are influenced by our publisher base and product offerings.  We have an SDK for iPhone and Android apps, and just released a beta SDK for webOS.  However we currently do not serve ads into RIM apps, which influences the traffic we see from the platform.  See this blog post for more info on interpreting the data in the Metrics report.

Tomorrow we’ll be releasing our November report reviewing some of the key trends we saw throughout 2009.

Mike

October 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

Today we released our October Mobile Metrics report.  Instead of comparing smartphone platforms against each other, this month we look inside each operating system at the distribution of requests coming from different handsets.

Looking at the distribution of traffic from RIM devices, the familiar 8300 Curve series and 8100 Pearl series still make up the majority of traffic.  However newer devices such as the Tour and updated versions of the Curve (8900 and 8520) are generating an increasing percentage of RIM requests.  The Flip (8220 and 8230), launched in Q4 of 2008, has not gained much traction and generated less than 2% of RIM traffic in October 2009.  The first generation Storm generated 12% of requests and has seen its percentage share stay the same over the last year.

Last month we outlined some of the reasons we were bullish on the Android platform, and the impact of the new devices launched in November is immediately apparent in our network data.   On November 18th, the Droid already represented 24% of the traffic in our Android network and the Motorola CLIQ generated 6% of Android requests.  Browsing statistics from Clicky, a web analytics firm, also show Droid traffic at similar levels as a percentage of Android browsing traffic.

For those new to the Metrics report, please visit this blog post for more information on the methodology and how to use the numbers in context.

Mike F

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

Placing AdMob Metrics in Context

Ever since we published our first Mobile Metrics Report in September 2007, our goal has been to provide data that helps the mobile ecosystem make better decisions.  As the mobile web has grown, the interest in our data from everyone to advertisers to publishers to Wall Street analysts has increased.   We are excited to help the community out and remain committed to sharing our data freely for others to use and interpret.  However, we do want to make sure that as people look at our data they think about it in the right context.  As with any data source, it is critical to keep in mind where the data is coming from and take that into account when interpreting the results.

The report is based on the ad requests we receive from our network of more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and iPhone and Android applications. The data contained in the report is a measure of mobile data usage and does not represent the traditional view of market share based on the number of handsets sold.  Our network site composition, product offerings, and business operations all influence the results.  We have always been open about our methodology and are as transparent as possible in the report to give readers the information they need to accurately interpret our statistics.

The value of the data comes from the identification of trends that can be seen by analyzing the substantial volume of traffic flowing through our system each day. In the past year we have highlighted the rise of the iPod touch, growing WiFi usage, and compared the adoption of new operating systems.   Taking WiFi as an example of how to view our numbers in context – knowing the exact percentage of WiFi (18% in the US in Sept 09) is less important than knowing that WiFi usage more than tripled over the last year.

Our data is also useful in combination with other qualitative or quantitative factors when thinking about a larger situation.  For example the feature section from our April report was used in Mary Meeker’s recent presentation at Web 2.0 in the context of the growth of the Mobile Internet.  This GigaOm post uses our usage data in combination with data on developer starts by mobile analytics firm Flurry to comment on the potential Android App Boom coming.

Feedback is always welcome at metrics@admob.com.  Although we read all of your comments, we unfortunately can’t respond to all of them given the volume of inquires we receive.  We look forward to improving the report going forward and continuing to provide useful data to the mobile community.

Mike F