Smartphones now yield a third of all mobile ad requests

Smartphones generated 33 percent of total mobile ad requests worldwide in February 2009--up from 26 percent the previous month--according to mobile ad marketplace AdMob's monthly Mobile Metrics Report. AdMob notes that the launch of HTC's G1 and the BlackBerry Storm galvanized increases in requests originating via the Android and BlackBerry operating systems--the firm adds that the growth is based on mobile web usage, not the volume of handsets sold, indicating the depth of consumer engagement with touchscreen devices. The top handsets from AT&T (Apple's iPhone) and Sprint (Samsung's Instinct) are also touchscreens, AdMob reports.

In terms of mobile ad requests, the top five smartphones worldwide are now the iPhone, Nokia N70, BlackBerry 8300, Nokia N80 and Nokia N73--the iPhone is also tops in the U.S., followed by the BlackBerry Curve (the leading Verizon Wireless device), BlackBerry Pearl, Palm Centro and HTC G1. The iPhone was responsible for 33 percent of smartphone traffic worldwide in February and 50 percent in the U.S., according to AdMob; Google's Android contributed 5 percent of ad requests in the U.S.

The Symbian OS remains out front in terms of market share, with 43 percent of requests--AdMob reports a significant percentage of both Symbian and Windows Mobile devices are running older versions of their respective operating systems, suggesting those handsets may not have access to Nokia's Ovi Store and Microsoft's Windows Markeplace for Mobile when those application storefronts open later this year.

For more on AdMob's February 2009 Mobile Metrics Report:
- read this release [1]

Related articles:
AdMob [2]: Monthly ad requests nearing 7 billion
AdMob [3]: iPhone generating 10 percent of U.S. mobile ad requests