Mobile advertising form AdMob has released its January mobile metrics report, and finds that Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices are the dominant players in mobile Wi-Fi usage in the United States, accounting for a whopping 29.1 percent of mobile Internet access requests in the U.S. during the month, with the iPhone alone accounted for 12.3 percent of the requests. The numbers are three times higher than figures as recent as November 2008, when iPhone and iPod touch users represented just 8 percent of requests on U.S. Wi-Fi networks.
Interestingly, growth in worldwide requests from the iPod touch outpaced the growth in requests from the iPhone itself, with the iPod touch now representing about 40 percent of all Apple device requests on worldwide Wi-Fi networks—that number is double the iPod touch’s share of requests as recently as September 2008. In Canada and Mexico, the iPod touch acutally accounted for the majority of Apple device Wi-Fi requests.
Globally, Nokia is the clear leader in mobile Wi-Fi requests, accounting for 43 percent of worldwide Wi-Fi requests; Apple came in second with 32 percent. RIM managed a 9 percent score, HTC accounted for 5 percent, Palm managed 4 percent, Danger captured 2 percent, and Samsung accounted for 1 percent. Broken down by platform, Symbian (which Nokia bought out last year and is converting to an open source platform) accounts for 44 percent of worldwide Wi-Fi requests. Apple captured 32 percent, RIM 9 percent, while Windows Mobile devices collectively captures 8 percent of the activity. Palm platforms managed four percent and Hiptop accounted for one percent. Google’s Android—which just barely arrived on the market in late 2008—already accounts for a one percent share of Wi-Fi requests.
Looking at just the United States smartphone market, the numbers shift radically, with Symbian dropping to a mere 1 percent share and Apple accounting for 51 percent of Wi-Fi requests. RIM came in second with 19 percent and Windows Mobile devices collectively accounted for 14 percent of Wi-Fi requests. Palm managed 8 percent and Hiptop and Android both captured 3 percent.
AdMod serves text and graphical ads to mobile browsers in more than 160 countries; their mobile metrics reports are based on operating system and device information associated with those requests.
