Apple devices now claim 58 percent of total in-app ad impressions; volumes for iPhone models dropped from 31 percent to 27 percent over the course of the month and also fell from 22 percent to 19 percent for the iPod Touch portable media player.
“Although Android’s four percent monthly surge may appear relatively modest on the face of it, we should bear in mind that figures from IDC have indicated that 68 percent of all smartphones shipped in 2012 have been Android models,” said Krishna Subramanian, Chief Marketing Officer of Velti. “Arguably, the iOS figures are down as consumers await the launch of the iPhone 5, but still these results support the view that the volume of Android impressions will continue to grow over the course of the year.”
Tablets are an area where iOS still dominates, total mobile in-app advertising impressions rose from nine to 12 percent for iPads in July. The rise may, in part, be accounted to the tablet’s launch in China on July 20th, which saw traffic ramp up by 150 percent in that market during its first week of launch. In global terms, the new iPad is now closing the gap on its predecessor in terms of ad impressions. In the five months post release, the new model has 20 percent of total impressions, while the iPad 2 had 24 percent of volumes at the same point in its lifecycle.
Velti’s research highlights the shape of the Android tablet market is changing, although Samsung is still the leading Android tablet manufacturer overall, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the most successful individual model accounting for 38 percent of the total market.
Commenting on the shape of the tablet market Subramanian said: “Despite the phenomenal success of the iPad, Apple shouldn’t rest on its laurels. The status quo is likely to be disrupted by the launch of the Kindle Fire 2 and Google Nexus 7. If the shape of the tablet market follows a similar pattern to what we’ve seen with smartphones, then publishers may consider reducing the lag time between iOS and Android app releases.”