Each month, AdMob, a mobile advertisement marketplace, analyzes their ad request/impression data to look for trends in the mobile world. This morning, they released their Mobile Metrics Report for September of 2008. As their first report was for September of 2007, this release grants us the first opportunity to compare statistics with those of a year ago.
To clarify, these statistics are generated by the number of ad impressions/requests they get from each handset across the 5,000+ sites they serve. While such numbers may correlate to sales, these do not directly represent sales numbers.
Top 10 mobile handsets in the US, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:
Perhaps to the chagrin of hardcore phone geeks around the country, the Motorola RAZR V3 and the Motorola KRZR K1c continue to dominate the top of the charts. In a bit of a surprising turn of events, Motorola has also dethroned RIM for the #3 and #4 spots, filling them with the W385 and Z6m. This gives Motorola 4 of the 5 top US handset spots – 3 of which are flip phones, with the other (the Z6m) being a slider.
Besides the RAZR V3, KRZR K1c, and BlackBerry 8100, the other 7 handsets broke into the US Top 10 over the last 12 months.
Top 10 mobile handsets in the UK, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:
Things look a bit different in the UK, without even a single Motorola appearance in the Top 10. The Sony Ericsson Cybershot K800i remains popular, though it has been bumped down to the number two spot by the dual-sliding Nokia N95. Sony Ericsson dominates the list with 5 of the 10 spots, with Apple’s iPhone sneaking in at #6.
Top 10 Handsets Worldwide, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:
Like in the US, the RAZR V3 leads the worldwide chart. The KRZR has been bumped down a notch, its spot now occupied by the Nokia N70. Growing in popularity with Apple now focusing on worldwide expansion, the iPhone now sits in the number four spot. (Note: AdMob also counts ad impressions within iPhone applications, not just within the browser.)
Being that the iPhone doesn’t break the top 5 in either the US or the UK (or even the top 20 in South Africa, India, or Indonesia, which collectively make up 32% of AdMob’s request traffic), it’s a bit surprising to see it shoot up to 4th world wide. I’ve sent a request to AdMob for some insight on the matter.
Update: Their response:
35% of iPhone impressions are actually outside of the US and UK. AdMob sees over 1 million iPhone requests from 14 different countries, which is why the worldwide number is so strong and the iPhone is higher in the WW ranking than in the US.
AdMob will also be providing a geographic breakout of iPhone traffic in the coming months.
Interesting facts gleaned from the report:
- The top 20 handsets worldwide account for 33.2% of impressions
- Worldwide, 64% of ad requests from smartphones come from Symbian handsets. In the US, that number drops down to 2%. In India, it shoots up to 97%.
- Even though it is long since obsolete in the Sidekick series, the Danger Sidekick II is the only Danger handset to break the Top 20 in the US.
- Kyocera phones account for almost 60% of requests made by MetroPCS customers
- Worldwide, 79.5% of handsets requesting ads support polyphonic ringtones. In the US, this drops to 54%. In India and the Philippines it rockets to 85.7% and 85.2% respectively, with the UK close behind at 83.5%.
There’s a whole lot of data to dig through in the full report. If you’re looking to crunch some numbers, check it out here.