AdMob's statistics for worldwide mobile internet use

It’s all go at mobile advertising giant, AdMob. I had a note in from Jason Spero, VP of Marketing there.

Here’s his email text:

We’ve just released the second monthly AdMob Mobile Metrics with October data.  In response to overwhelming interest in the initial September report, we have added additional data to include the top 20 handsets per country market.

Some observations from the October data:

– AdMob Network impressions were up 3%, driven by growth in Europe
– Motorola KRZR gained US share to claim the top handset position
– Apple iPhone doubled US share from 0.4% to 0.9%
– The top 20 devices represent 50% of impressions in individual markets

If you’re not already familiar with the AdMob Mobile Metrics, this is a new report with market level data derived from data collected by AdMob.  We hope that this data snapshot will provide insight into trends in the mobile ecosystem and expect that this data will be valuable for site publishers, advertisers and content and application developers.

Find the report here

This is potentially one of the world’s most valuable pieces of mobile market data in the context of the mobile internet. It’s all very well getting a report from Gartner to tell you that a billion people ‘might’ do something… but this data from AdMob is straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. The AdMob stats only cover handsets they’ve actually tracked from people using mobile internet. Yes there are issues if you’re a data realist (not all sites run AdMob etc etc) but it’s still a fascinating snapshot.

You can, with a reasonably accurate look of confidence on your face, explain to people that 31% of mobile internet users are browsing with a Nokia. Annoyingly, the Motorola RAZR is the most popular handset version, worldwide. Sony Ericsson, RIM, Samsung and Sanyo models also feature in the top 20. No LG handsets featured in the top 20. Oh dear.

A vomit enducing 14% of US mobile internet browsers do so with their piece of shit Motorola RAZRs and KRZRs. Goodness me. An AdMob advert must take up half the sodding screen on a shitty Motorola browser. We move on. Good to see the iPhone impressions lift from 0.4 to 0.9% in October which indicates the devices are getting a bit of use on the web.

More from the report?

Well, 65% of Indian mobile users are on a Nokia. Top marks Nokia.

But in the UK? Dramatically different. The top manufacturer for UK mobile internet browsers is Sony Ericsson (32%) followed by Nokia (24%), Samsung (9%), Motorola (Shit – 5%), NEC (3.8% — this must surely be the 3UK installed base of NEC handsets? Who else is flogging NECs? They don’t even operate in the UK handset market any more!), LG (3.5%) and ZTE (2.8%).

ZTE, in case you were wondering, are the China handset manufacturer. Although I couldn’t pick a ZTE out of a Police line up at 10 paces.

How in the world did a ZTE F866 handset get to be the fifth most popular handset in the UK for mobile internet browsing?

Ahh. Did a bit of research. 3UK launched the ZTE F866 model, way back.

Sony Ericsson K800i users are the most active mobile internet users in the UK according to these stats (5.6% of impressions).

And Windows Mobile? Rubbish.

Absolutely rubbish. They’re not even on the list. So bad, they’re lumped in with the ‘other’ category. To be expected though. They’re hardly consumer handsets.

You can have a look at the AdMob metrics here.