April 2010 AdMob Report Echoes Everything We’ve Heard About Android’s Growth So Far
Before we get started drilling down some numbers, I’m obligated to remind everyone that AdMob’s reports are based on devices that access their ad pool. This means that the actual number of devices in the ecosystem will differ from the numbers that AdMob’s reporting. This is not the most accurate representation of the market, but it’s one of the most detailed and perhaps the most recognized. Having gotten that out of the way, let’s begin!
Last week’s Google I/O conference was a big deal for Android – as it has been for the three years it’s been going on, now – and Google highlighted some great numbers for us to kick their keynote off. For starters, we learned that Android was seeing more than 100,000 device activations per day. This surprised us because not too long before that, we heard that the tally was up to 65,000 (by way of Eric Schmidt).
We also learned that Google was second (only to RIM) in United States smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2010. AdMob’s latest numbers seem to match up with that quite accurately. While their numbers are showing that the iPhone alone (and not the iPod and iPad variations) still trumps Android in the United States, it’s not by much. In the month of April, 10.7-million unique iPhones requested ads from AdMob’s network as opposed to Android’s 8.7-million.
Worldwide was a different story, though, with 27.4-million iPhones crushing Android’s 11.6-million unique requests. For what it’s worth – at least for the United States – Android is definitely going head-to-head with the iPhone and looks like it’s able to keep up just as everyone’s expecting it to.
Even with less unique devices, though, Android was still able to remain first in the United States for overall smartphone operating system share (second only to iPhone OS, which got surpassed in last month’s report, as well). Android accounted for 46% of the share compared to iPhone’s 38%. While Android remained the same from last month, RIM’s share made a small 2% nudge to knock iPhone’s share this month down by 1%.
iPhone still dominates worldwide, though, with the operating system accounting for 32% of the share opposed to Android’s 22%. Android did see a small amount of growth, though, as its worldwide share was able to increase by 4%, causing iPhone OS’s to drop by 5% (the other 1% dent came from Nokia’s Symbian OS, which remains at third place with 11% of the share).
If these numbers haven’t melted your brain yet, be sure to take a peek at the full report for yourself for a detailed breakdown of AdMob’s latest findings across the entire board.