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AdMob: 10% of UK smartphones are running Android

You know AdMob, the chaps who serve billions of mobile advertisements every month?

Well they’ve been publishing a metrics report every month for quite a while and it makes absolutely fascinating reading.

It is my no means illustrative of the market as a whole — they can obviously only track the users who’re visiting mobile sites featuring their ads — but nevertheless it’s a brilliant indication of what a section of the mobile population is doing with their devices.

You can get the metrics reports free here: http://metrics.admob.com/.

Here’s some interesting points from the latest report:

AdMob’s most recent mobile metrics report revealed that:
– The Android OS now has seven per cent market share globally
– 10 per cent of smartphones in the UK now run the Android OS
– HTC Dream, which uses the Android OS, is the second most popular mobile phone for surfing the mobile web in the UK, after the Apple iPhone
– Android is growing rapidly in North America and Western Europe. The HTC Magic is a Top 10 smartphone in both North America and Western Europe
– The HTC Dream handset is ranked fourth globally

And..

An AdMob study of 1000 mobile phone users revealed that:
– Android users download 9.1 apps a month on average
– iPhone users download 10.2 apps a month on average
– iPod Touch users download 18.4 apps a month on average

It’s a fascinating time for the industry.

41 COMMENTS

  1. I think we'd all do well to remember that this is not reality, but a rather a pointer to something that might be somewhere vaguely within the vicinity of reality. Admobs stats biggest failing are that they are Admobs stats 🙂

    For example:
    > – 10 per cent of smartphones in the UK now run the Android OS
    How does that correlate with sales figures and installed base exactly? And not just current ones but including all the older smartphones floating about. Are we really saying, given the relative ages of Symbian and Android, that literally 10 per cent on all smartphones in the UK now run Android? Because that's what you just said, in black and white. As did AdMob. And that means your and their credibility is on the line here. As is the credibility of all their other stats if they're going to make statements like that.

    If it's true, prove it, and I'll be very happy to hear it. But given years of vastly higher Symbian/S60 sales than any other platform, and considering sales of other platforms, and considering how long Android has been on sale and it's miniscule sales figures, for anyone to say “- 10 per cent of smartphones in the UK now run the Android OS” is REALLY hard to believe.

    Now, what exactly I wonder is the TRUTH, the actualy reality, in the field. On that stat and all the other stats Admob pumps out…

  2. I said: “AdMob: 10% of UK smartphones are running Android” — so I was most definitely quoting them, Alex. And I did point out that these stats are entirely based on AdMob's traffic — they're certainly not conclusive or comprehensive, as they can only track people visiting the mobile web (who, in turn, visit sites using AdMob). But it's a good ready reckoner, I think. Not conclusive at all, but a reasonable indication of mobile web usage.

  3. I think we'd all do well to remember that this is not reality, but a rather a pointer to something that might be somewhere vaguely within the vicinity of reality. Admobs stats biggest failing are that they are Admobs stats 🙂

    For example:
    > – 10 per cent of smartphones in the UK now run the Android OS
    How does that correlate with sales figures and installed base exactly? And not just current ones but including all the older smartphones floating about. Are we really saying, given the relative ages of Symbian and Android, that literally 10 per cent on all smartphones in the UK now run Android? Because that's what you just said, in black and white. As did AdMob. And that means your and their credibility is on the line here. As is the credibility of all their other stats if they're going to make statements like that.

    If it's true, prove it, and I'll be very happy to hear it. But given years of vastly higher Symbian/S60 sales than any other platform, and considering sales of other platforms, and considering how long Android has been on sale and it's miniscule sales figures, for anyone to say “- 10 per cent of smartphones in the UK now run the Android OS” is REALLY hard to believe.

    Now, what exactly I wonder is the TRUTH, the actualy reality, in the field. On that stat and all the other stats Admob pumps out…

  4. I said: “AdMob: 10% of UK smartphones are running Android” — so I was most definitely quoting them, Alex. And I did point out that these stats are entirely based on AdMob's traffic — they're certainly not conclusive or comprehensive, as they can only track people visiting the mobile web (who, in turn, visit sites using AdMob). But it's a good ready reckoner, I think. Not conclusive at all, but a reasonable indication of mobile web usage.

  5. If you are looking for a more accurate representation of mobile users' activity, Novarra has done a similar study on mobile phone usage that is more extensive in the number of mobile users surveyed, as well as the information obtained.
    Key finding include:
    * Data from the broadest aggregation of mobile internet usage covering 50,000+ browser/handset profiles accessing millions of mobile and full web sites through Novarra’s network of deployments around the world
    * Reporting segregated by five profiles based upon different classes of users with distinct mobile preferences and behaviors
    * Analysis and insights covering mobile internet sessions, data usage and types of sites frequented
    * Important issues spanning all profile groups related to handsets, markets and user behaviors

    To learn more about the study, click on the link below.

    href=”http://www.novarra.com/news/press-releases/novarra-reveals-mobile-internet-stats/”>

    Also, if you're interested in obtaining the full document PDF of the study, make a request to Novarra by clicking on the link below:

    href=”http://www.novarra.com/contact/”>

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