AdMob report finds Android lifting off, passing Windows

July 23, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

rocketlaunchAndroid, the open-source mobile platform promoted by Google and built into the T-Mobile G1 built by HTC, is blasting off past Microsoft’s never-quite-successful Windows Mobile. AdMob’s June 2009 Mobile Metrics Report says Android traffic has increased 25 percent month over month. Among mobile operating systems, Android now has a global market share of five percent, which puts it ahead of Windows Mobile.

The report also features, for the first time, an estimated breakdown of the number of iPhone and iPod touch devices sold in various countries. Given Apple’s recent announcement that 45 million iPhone OS devices have been sold worldwide, AdMob estimates that there have been 13 million iPhone and 12 million iPod touch units sold to date in the U.S. based on user data in AdMob’s network.

AdMob’s log files say iPhone adoption in the U.S. is as crazy as it seems. An estimated 13.25 million iPhones are online in America, compared to 1.9 and 1.8 million in second and third-rated Germany and France. Half of the world’s iPhones and 60 percent of its iPod Touches are in the United States, according to AdMob data.

The report can be clicked through in its entirety at metrics.admob.com.

[Photo by NASA]

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Hmm.. do we have to expect more? Lets see if it'll rise above 25%..
  • Surprising to see Android overtake windows mobile so quickly, especially when it seems that most "normal people" don't know what Android is.

    And wow - 45 million iPhones & iPod Touch devices sold to date - If you divide that by the 1.5 billion app store downloads Apple reports, that translates to an average of 33 iPhone apps downloaded for each user - if my math is correct.

    Does that seem believable ?
  • Sanjay Sharma
    Not this again. They are only referring to Admob measured activity... If the application or website does not have Admob's software installed, its not measured. That means this statistic isn't representative of the total population of mobile usage. When will these stupid headlines stop?
  • +1 to Sanjay's comment. This report is based purely on AdMob's activity on these devices and is not representative of the entire smartphone market.
  • TedHoward
    As with all statistics, you must keep the sample population in mind. Your presentation of the facts implies that one can extrapolate from one sample population to a different population.

    If I understand things correctly, AdMob only sees numbers for people surfing the web on their phone. That's a very limited population as compared to all people with phones. I have a Windows Mobile phone as a phone+PDA - no data plan. If I had a data plan then I would only check email, not surf the web, and that's how all Windows Mobile users I know use their phones. If your screen isn't big, then you won't surf the web; just look at the phones featured ad admob.com. If your mobile web browser (the current IE) won't render html well, then you won't be surfing the web.

    AdMob is serving its own interests by ignoring how limited their data is. Bloggers and journalists should be motivated to educate and inform the public, which means pointing out these limitations. On the other hand, anyone whose job is to look at such data should be intelligent enough to see through the fluff of such PR and understand the true meaning of the numbers.
  • ez
    Of course this analysis does not tell anything about overall phone shares
    but it still shows that windows is currently not able to strengthen its position
    at mobile internet usage.
    If you also consider how important internet is today on desktops and laptops this
    data still provides enough to do some estimations.
  • @Tedhoward -- exactly -- big selection bias inherent in admob's network.