Android Ad Requests Boom, Connected Devices Major Source of Mobile Impressions

According to Millennial Media’s recent “Mobile Mix” report for March, connected devices like the iPad account for a major portion of mobile impressions.

The report found that Apple remained the top U.S. manufacturer, as its devices accounted for 40.14 percent of impressions on Millennial Media’s network, up 1.52 percent from February’s 38.62 percent share.

It was followed by Samsung, with 17.74 percent in March, followed by RIM with 8.03 percent, LG with 7.47 percent and Motorola with 6.15 percent.

RIM leapfrogged LG to become third on the list of the top 15 manufacturers.

The Apple iPhone was the most popular mobile phone in March, as it finished the month with 26.69 percent of impressions, followed by the BlackBerry Curve with 6.23 percent and the Samsung Freeform SCH-R350 with 2.57 percent.

The Samsung SPH-M800 (Instinct) followed with 2.05 percent, while the Motorola Clutch I465 held 1.67 percent of impressions during March.

Touch screens dominated the device input game with 55 percent of impressions, up 1.0 percent. QWERTY followed with 23 percent, while keypads had 16 percent and touch & QWERTY devices had 6 percent of impressions.

In terms of carriers, Wi-Fi led the way with 27 percent of impressions, up 1.35 percent in March. Verizon and AT&T each had 15 percent, followed by Sprint-Nextel with 12 percent, Metro PCS with 10 percent, T-Mobile with 9 percent and all others with 8 percent.

Smart phones accounted for 45 percent of impressions, leading the way in the operating system race. It was followed by feature phones with 34 percent and connected devices with 21 percent. Connected devices, which “encompass handheld devices that are enabled to access the mobile web, but are not mobile phones, such as the Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, Sony PSP and iPad, to name a few,” according to the report, was unveiled as a new OS category in March.

For the smart phones piece of the pie, 70 percent was made up of Apple OS, followed by 14 percent of RIM OS, 6 percent of Android OS, 4 percent of Windows Mobile OS, 3 percent of others, 3 percent of Danger and 1 percent of webOS.

Android ad requests rose 72 percent in March from February, according to the report, while Apple ad requests grew 20 percent month-over-month. RIM ad requests rose 25 percent month-over-month.

The report also notes that iPad impressions boomed 713 percent during the first full week of the device’s debut on the consumer market (April 5-12).

Sources:</strong

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=126315

http://www.millennialmedia.com/wp-content/images/mobilemix/MM-MobileMix-March2010.pdf