AdMob Mobile Metrics

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

August 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

Today we released the Mobile Metrics report with August data.  For those new to the report, the AdMob Mobile Metrics report is a reflection of the data flowing through our network each month. The statistics do not represent handset sales or unique devices in the market, rather they represent the relative mobile usage we see from the sites and apps in our network.  This means that devices with heavy mobile usage (like the iPhone) have higher share than other devices.

For this month’s feature, we’ve published the top devices and smartphones for each region as well as share of usage.  Below is a chart showing how the share of operating systems has changed in the last six months.

•    As we have noted in previous reports, iPhone and Android continue to gain share at the expense of the legacy platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile.
•    Although its share of usage has been declining, Nokia handsets still dominate the top smartphones lists in all regions outside North America. Nokia’s new touchscreen devices – the N97 and XpressMusic – are both gaining traction and were the number 4 and 5 smartphones in Western Europe.
•    Android continues its strong growth in both North America and Europe.  Ad requests from Android devices grew 17% month over month in August, following a 50% increase in July.  Given the new devices launching in Q4, it could be a huge holiday season for the Android platform.
•    Although it is still early, we are starting to see traffic from the Palm Pre as we add new publishers to the network.  While encouraging, this is just one month of data and we’ll continue to monitor it going forward.

Our worldwide and regional statistics are influenced by the location of the traffic in our network, so keep that in mind as you interpret the data.  Our top 10 countries by traffic are listed in page 12 of the report, along with traffic breakdown by region, to help inform your analysis.

Mike

iPhone OS Adoption

Apple released the 3.1 version of the iPhone OS in early September.  As we have seen in the past, there is already significant uptake of the new OS with 23% of our ad requests coming from 3.1.  The data below is taken as an aggregate of all worldwide requests we received from iPhones and iPod touches from Sept 15 – 22.

We still see a significant difference between iPhone and iPod touch users upgrades, which isn’t surprising given the $5 upgrade requirement for the iPod touch.  91% of iPhone requests are 3.0 or 3.1, compared to only 35% of iPod touch requests.

Mike F

July 2009 Metrics Report

Over the past few months, we have started to incorporate different data sources into our monthly Mobile Metrics reports, for example using smartphone browsing data from Net Applications in our April report.   These additional data sources help us provide context to the trends we see in our network and bring further insights would be outside of the data we can collect just from analyzing our traffic patterns.

This month, we surveyed over 1,000 of our iPhone, iPod touch and Android users to find out more about their interaction and download behavior with apps.  A couple highlights:

•    Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps a month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18 per month
•    More than 90 percent of Android and iPhone OS users browse and search for apps directly on their mobile device instead of their computer
•    Upgrading from the lite version was the top reason given when users were asked what drives them to purchase a paid app
•    iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to purchase paid apps than Android users.
•    Users who regularly download paid apps spend approximately $9 on an average of five paid downloads per month

In addition to highlighting the key insights in the featured section of the Metrics report, we have also uploaded a supplemental presentation that includes all of the data from the surveys for those who are interested to dig into the details.

Mike

July Metrics – App Survey Data

Attached is a presentation that includes all of the details from our survey on iPhone and Android app discovery and usage as highlighted in the July Metrics report.

WiFi capable Smartphones on the rise

GigaOm posted an interesting blog on the growth of WiFi capable devices.   According to Meraki, a San Francisco startup, Apple devices represent 32% of all WiFi-capable devices observed on their network.  Both RIM and Nokia also saw a large increase in the number of devices accessing WiFi over last year.

We looked at WiFi usage in our network in the January Metrics Report.

Smartphone sales up 27%

According to market research firm Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales declined 6% to 286 million units in the second quarter.   However smartphone sales were a bright spot posting a 27% gain.  Smartphone penetration was 14%, up from 10% a year ago.  The chart below shows the change in smartphone share by manufacturer over the last year.  Although Nokia still dominates with 45% share, Apple was the big winner last year with an increase in share from 3% to 13%.

Source: Gartner, August 2009

The pie chart below shows the smartphone data cut by operating system, with the iPhone OS now ahead of Windows Mobile.

Source: Gartner, August 2009

Gartner also states that Palm is in 10th place in the smartphone market and sold 205,000 Palm Pre units in Q2.  Please note that this data from Gartner is based on the number of units devices sold, a much different methodology than is used to calculate share of mobile web usage each month in our Mobile Metrics Report.

New Industry Reports from Flurry and Distimo

Flurry released the July version of their monthly Smartphone Industry Pulse last week.  The demand for their analytics service for Android apps has recently increased, potentially signaling increased developer attention in advance of the new Android devices scheduled in the second half of the year.  Visit their blog for details on their findings.

Another new data source in the world of applications come from Distimo, an app store analytics startup based in the Netherlands.  They have put out a report that compares the Apple App Store and Android market along such dimensions as average price per category and the price distribution of the top apps in the stores.  Visit their blog for highlights and to download their report.

Mike