Velti ‘State of Mobile Advertising’ Report Shows Android Market Share Fell Dramatically In 2012

Velti, a global provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology, has released its ‘State of Mobile Advertising 2012: Year in Review data report. The report highlights key mobile trends in 2012, including insight into iOS market dominance and the growing international opportunity in developing markets.

Velti’s report shows Apple regained market dominance after falling behind to Android in 2011. This year, Android’s market share closed at 37 percent, compared to 61 percent in 2011. Contributing factors include the popularity of the iPad mini and iPhone 5, as well as increasing affordability of the iPod Touch and iPhone 4S. In fact, new iOS devices released in 2012 had the strongest influence on changes in mobile use and impressions:

• The iPad mini saw more total impressions at the end of November 2012 than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 did in the entire year. By the end of the year, the iPad mini averaged 20 times more impressions than Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (42.4 billion vs. 2.1 billion impressions).

• Although the Samsung Galaxy S3 was released at the end of May 2012, the iPhone 5, released in mid-September 2012, has already caught up to the Samsung Galaxy S3 in impression share. The iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 each held 50 percent of impression share, respectively, by the end of November.

• Despite having the largest mobile carrier share in China, China Mobile has a much smaller share of impressions than China Unicom (5 percent and 11 percent, respectively). This is most likely due to the fact that China Mobile does not carry the iPhone.

“Looking back at 2012, we really see Apple’s power over the mobile landscape,” says Krishna Subramanian, CMO of Velti. “A great example: despite the fact that China Mobile is the biggest carrier in China, it has low overall mobile impressions, without the iPhone, and advertisers in this market just arent reaching consumers in the volume they could. This is incredibly valuable insight for marketers and brands. At the end of 2012, iOS devices held a 63 percent share of the marketso we know that Apple holds the key to reaching consumers.”

Velti’s report also reveals that international growth is booming, offering a huge value to mobile marketers to reach consumers around the globe. Key international markets surface as mobile hotbeds in 2012:

• In Brazil, smartphone sales were predicted to increase 77 percent in 2012 according to IDC. The country now leads in click through rates (CTR) with an average CTR of 2.575 percent. China trailed close behind at 2.403 percent, followed by Italy and Russia (2.184 percent and 1.879 percent, respectively).

• Smartphone users in developed mobile markets were less likely to click on ads: the UK placed eighth at 1.667 percent, while Australia (1.623 percent), the United States (1.558 percent), Japan (1.457 percent), and Canada (1.429 percent) trailed.

• In Europe, Spain saw a 1,020.7 percent growth in mobile impressions in 2012, which is significantly higher than its second and third place contenders, Russia (726.7 percent) and Italy (671.3 percent). According to comScore, Spain sees higher smartphone consumption than the whole of Europe, on average.

The U.S. and Western Europe have been mobile leaders for quite some time, but that landscape is clearly changing, said Subramanian. Often in developed countries, mobile devices are the way consumers communicate and access the internet, do their banking, play games, and stream TV. With developing markets around the world now embracing mobile and supporting its infrastructure, we have immense growth opportunities in front of us for 2013 and beyond. Its time for the industry to look beyond the usual mobile suspects.

Other notable data from the report includes:

• Impressions served on photography apps grew 389.7 percent between January and the end of November. Likely contributing factors: better camera hardware on the devices themselves, and the availability of Instagram to Android users in April of 2012.

• On Android phones, consumers love productivity apps. The category’s impression share on Android (5.7 percent) dwarfs other platforms (1.4 percent on Android Tablets, .6 percent on iPhone and .7 percent on iPad).

• AT&T holds 45 percent of impression shares in the U.S., almost twice the share of Verizon (25 percent) and more than four times the share of T-Mobile (10 percent).

• Six months out of ten, ads served through real-time bidding (RTB) saw higher click-through rates than ads served in the rest of Veltis Mobclix Exchange, effectively showing that RTB is a valuable and cost-effective targeting mechanism for publishers and advertisers.

Data for this report is taken from the Mobclix Exchange, which sits at the intersection of 33,500+ apps and 45+ ad networks.

For more information, visit:
http://www.velti.com