Users Spend $2.4 Billion on iPhone Apps

That number, $2.4 billion, represents AdMob's estimate of how much users are roughly spending on an annualized basis on paid apps from the iTunes store. These figures are part of AdMob's July, 2009 mobile metrics report. Much of the report is in turn based on a mobile survey of 1,000 users (see additional data). Some of the top-level findings are as  follows (emphasis added):

• Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps a month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18 per month
• Upgrading from the lite version was the top reason given when users were asked what drives them to purchase a paid app
• iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to purchase paid apps than Android users.
• Users who regularly download paid apps spend approximately $9 on an average of five paid downloads per month

Based on these figures AdMob extrapolates and estimates the value of the iPhone apps market and that of the Android Market for paid apps:

• iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to regularly download paid apps as Android users.  19% of Android users regularly download 1 or more paid apps a month, compared to 50% of iPhone users and 40% of iPod touch users.
• These users spend roughly $9 a month and download 5 paid apps per month.  Dividing the average amount paid per month by the average number of paid apps downloaded yields an average app purchase price of about $1.80.
• App Store paid market is nearly $200 million per month versus $5 million per month for the Android Market

Here are some of the charts accompanying the report:

And among smartphones on its network, AdMob reports the following mobile Web activity (US):

• iPhone/iPod Touch: 60%
• RIM: 13%
• Android: 12%
• Windows Mobile: 6% 

Compare with last month's data:

• iPhone/iPod Touch: 64%
• RIM: 14%
• Android: 9%
• Windows Mobile: 6% 

Compare July global share:

• iPhone/iPod Touch: 45%
• Symbian/Nokia: 33%
• RIM: 7%
• Android: 7%
• Windows Mobile: 4% 

Conclusions:

• The mobile Internet is in the US still mostly about the iPhone though Android is gaining
• The iPhone paid apps market is big and getting bigger
• Users are quite willing to pay for apps at relatively small price points
• The free + paid app strategy seems like it's paying off (literally) for developers

____

Related: Earlier this month we reported on earlier data from AdMob on app downloads and user behavior.

Update: Developers question the figures/math here. 

Millennial Media July Scorecard: 35% of Devices on Network Are Smartphones

Millennial Media has released its July "Scorecard for 
Mobile
 Advertising
 Reach 
and
 Targeting." The company cites Nielsen estimates that the US mobile Internet now has 61.1 million users (this is probably still a bit low). On the basis of that figure, Millennial claims 75% reach on the mobile Internet.

Here are selected bits of data from the report: 

• Mobile
 users 
clicked
 through
 more
 pages
 (106 
from
 99)
 in
 shorter
 sessions 
(5
 minutes 10
 seconds 
average 
user
session
 versus
 5 
minutes 
38 
seconds
 in 
June).

• The iPhone continued to dominate the top devices category with a 12.21% share, a 3.62% increase over June.
• Smartphones over-indexed (vs. their share of US handsets) at 35% of the top 20 devices accessing Millennial's network. 

Here are several charts from the report:

Compare the top pie chart above with the market share of the top four US carriers and MetroPCS, according to self-reported (Q2) subscriber figures:

• Verizon: 87.7 million
• AT&T: 79.6 million
• Sprint (+ Virgin Mobile): 48.8 million
• T-Mobile: 33.5 million
• MetroPCS: 6.3 million 

One must look at all the reports (AdMob, Opera, Millennial and so on) because each presents a slightly different picture of the mobile Internet, device penetration and user behavior.

JumpTap Issued Another Advertising Patent

In June JumpTap was issued what appears to be a potentially sweeping mobile advertising patent. Another patent was just issued (no. 7,577,665) to JumpTap and is discussed in the press release out this morning. The one-line description of the thrust of what is being patented is "user characteristic influenced search results." 

Here's the important language regarding when the patent would be implicated: 

(ii) receiving from the carrier information relating to a plurality of user characteristics derived by the carrier, wherein the plurality of user characteristics are at least:

(a) two or more demographics associated with the user, wherein the demographics are obtained from the billing system of the carrier; and

(b) shopping habits of the user as recorded through use of the mobile communication facility, wherein the shopping habits include views of or purchases of goods or services; and

(c) duration of on-line interactions by the user from using the mobile communication facility; and

(d) usage patterns of the mobile communication facility including past mobile communication facility transactions comprising click-throughs; and

(e) previous search queries entered by the user via the mobile communication facility . . .

This language appears to require data being passed from the carrier to the engine. I'll speculate then that it wouldn't apply to "off deck" search or circumstances where the engine isn't getting information from the carrier. So, for example, I could argue it wouldn't apply to Google search on smartphones but it might well apply in the following hypothetical scenario: Bing search on Verizon handsets where Verizon user data is used to influence what ads to show in search results.

As with all patents, it's typically not until a court gets to rule on the meaning of the language that we get a sense of what this truly means. But JumpTap now has two broad mobile search advertising-related patents.

AdMob: iPhone Users Add 1-6 Apps per Month

Based on a recent survey of iPhone users within the AdMob network, the company found the following attitudes and behavior regarding apps discovery and downloads (I don't know the sample size). I'm going to assume that these results are fairly representative of the larger iPhone user population.

Most people are downloading between 1-6 apps per month. They're using 4-6 apps on a weekly basis, but a substantial number are using between 7-10. The inference I draw from this is users have limited attention. While there may be 30 or 40 (or more) apps on users' iPhones, they're only going to use a number that can fit on the home screen.

What the slide above shows is that the top methods for discovering apps are:

1. Searching for a specific type of app
2. Browsing through top app store rankings
3. Word of mouth
4. Ads on other iPhone apps
5. News article/blogs
6. Brand introduces app

The final two slides show that most respondents have downloaded branded apps and that users (60%) are favorably disposed toward them. Indeed, apps are proving to be a very effective tool for brands. We can expect more and more growth among branded apps.

How Far Past the iPhone Should Marketers Look?

AdAge features a piece that advises mobile marketers to start looking beyond the iPhone. Yes, that's prudent advice as a general matter; the iPhone represents a tiny slice of the handset market. However, if you're talking apps then it's all about the iPhone -- at least right now. The app experience is less significant on Android; it will grow over time and as more Android devices enter the market it will become a potentially important apps platform. 

Rhomobile and Appcelerator (and others) have "write once" native apps development platforms. This scenario will become more common, allowing publishers and developers to more efficiently build apps across the major smartphone platforms. Right now, however, among smartphones it's really mostly about the iPhone: 

According to Nielsen (pre 3Gs), iPhone users:

• 37% watch video on their phone (6x as likely as the typical subscriber)
• 45% have household incomes of $100K or more – twice the ratio among all subscribers (19%).
• 98% of iPhone users use the data features of their phone
• 88% use the Internet (making them 4x as likely as the typical subscriber)
• 75% download apps (5x as likely as the typical subscriber)
• 72% used location based services (7x as likely as the typical subscriber) 

As the AdAge article points out, if you want reach beyond the iPhone, you can and should think about the mobile Internet. Google itself is increasingly banking on the browser as its "cross-platform" strategy. However if you need an app to create the optimal user experience then it's: iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian (outside the US) in order of potential reach.

___

Related: After iPhone exclusivity ends, AT&T is looking to a "plethora" of devices to constitute its "second act." AT&T reportedly envisions a broad range of connected devices with related consumer subscriptions to the network.  

The Largest Mobile Ad Networks?

PaidContent has used Nielsen data (from an article in Mobile Marketer) on unique visitors to compile a list of the largest mobile ad networks. Here's the list according to the site (based on monthly unique reach in the US):

1. Millennial Media: 45.6 million
2. Yahoo!: 36.1 million
3. Google: 31.9 million
4. AOL/Platform-A’s Third Screen Media: 28.6 million
5. AdMob: 25.7 million
6. Microsoft: 25.4 million (doesn't include the new Verizon deal)
7. Jumptap: 23.4 million
8. Quattro Wireless: 23 million

I invite the companies on the list (or comScore) to dispute it and provide their numbers.

AdMob Serves '100 Billionth' Ad

AdMob says this morning that it served its "100 billionth ad." The company has been around since 2006 served its "billionth" ad in 2007. (McDonald's comparisons seem inevitable here.)

Here are some data cited in the blog post announcing the 100 billionth ad:

• In June 2009 AdMob served ads on more than 16 million unique iPhone and iPod touch devices worldwide (source: June 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report)
• Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% in 2009 to 164 million units (source: Forward Concepts, Smartphone & Chip Market Opportunities: An in-Depth, Global Analysis of Smartphones, Chips & Operating System, February 2009)
• In 2008, the estimated number of mobile subscriptions quickly outpaced PC internet users.  Mobile subscriptions exceeded 4 Billion vs. 1.5 Billion PC internet users (source: International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the UN)

Meanwhile, AdMob has decided, at least temporarily, to not discontinue support for "ad mediators" AdWhirl and TapJoy:

In order to ensure that we are focused on doing what is best for our publishers, we have decided to temporarily delay the discontinuation of support for mediation layers until we can introduce a comprehensive plan that meets our publishers’ needs while also continuing to provide advertisers and end users with the best possible experience on mobile.

Mobclix Launches 'Largest Ad Exchange Platform' for Mobile

It took quite awhile for "ad exchanges" to arise online. Years after the proliferation of ad networks ad exchanges came along to aggregate inventory and bring more "liquidity" to the market. They also aim to overcome market fragmentation. Indeed, there are more than 400 online ad networks and, depending on how one defines exchange, 5-10 online ad exchanges. 

A parallel trend is taking off in mobile, even before mobile ad networks have reached anything approaching maturity. Today mobile ad exchange Mobclix announced that it had developed the largest mobile ad exchange:

Through partnerships with over 20 leading ad networks, Mobclix provides the largest community of developers, advertisers, agencies and ad networks on one common platform for consolidated relationship management. As marketers leverage the Mobclix platform for precise audience targeting based on geographic, demographic and behavioral insights, developers use its analytics and advertising expertise to gain access to multiple networks in order to secure 100 percent fill rates and the highest eCPMs.

Mobile ad networks (partial list):

• AdMob
• AdModa
• 4Info
• Google/DoubleClick
• Greystripe 
• JumpTap
• Medio Systems
• Microsoft
• Millenial Media
• Mojiva
• MoVoxx
• Nokia Interactive (formerly enpocket)
• Quattro Wireless
• ThirdScreen/AOL 
• Video Egg
• Yahoo!

Mobile "exchanges," "mediators" and/or marketplaces (partial list): 

• Adfonic
• AdMarvel
• AdWhirl
• Mobclix
• Phonespots (Call Genie, but haven't heard anything in some time)
• Smaato
• Tapjoy 

Also some of the "networks" in the first list are starting to incorporate quasi-exchange features and third party inventory.

Pandora-Clear Channel Sales Deal: Danger Ahead

Pandora, the top Internet radio brand -- really the YouTube of Internet radio -- and the top free app for the iPhone in 2008 has struck an ad sales deal with Clear Channel, according to AdAge:

Clear Channel's radio ad sales rep firm, Katz Media Group, will start selling display and audio ads for Pandora through its Katz 360 digital sales group

Pandora comes to Katz 360 with a fledgling display-ad business that just introduced audio inventory in late 2008, yielding a total $18 million in 2008, or 95% of the company's revenue. Doug Stern, Pandora's director-audio sales, expected that total to double by the end of 2009 before the Katz 360 deal, and is now even more optimistic that Pandora will fit into advertisers' mind-set as often as it does listeners.

To date, Pandora has been using Google on its iPhone app to monetize inventory with AdSense banners. Apparently there are occasional audio ads that appear on Pandora, but I've never encountered one.

I'm a daily (and heavy) user of Pandora but, as I said to founder Tim Westergren at the EconSM show earlier this year: the minute I start hearing audio ads interrupting the music I'm gone.

Pandora has spoken in the past about a subscription offering (for its heaviest users). Audio ads could be part of a dual strategy to monetize inventory but also to drive those (like me) who listen to Pandora, in part because there are no ads, to a subscription offering. 

We'll see how it plays out but there's danger in injecting conventional audio advertising into Pandora and alienating its audience -- or at least me.

Pandora, which owes its success in large measure to its iPhone app, has now become a clear (channel) acquisition target. 

Study: Mobile Video Users Hard to Reach on PC

Mobile video ad platform and network Transpera put out a release today showing dramatic growth of video consumption on partner MSNBC's mobile properties:

Since first introducing video into the msnbc.com mobile Web product in March, monthly video views across the full suite of msnbc.com mobile product offerings has increased 207% - that’s an impressive 3x more video views in just over 4 months.

Further, according to msnbc.com, 60% of its mobile users are the most sophisticated class of smartphone user: they are savvy, active, and shop online.

InsightExpress performed the research on mobile video users for Transpera. Among "mobile users who watch mobile video at least once a week," the company found the following:

• 78% rely on their mobile phone for up-to-the-minute information, vs. only 19% of those who never viewed mobile video.
• 71% prefer to receive information via mobile internet, vs. just 13% of those who don’t view mobile video.
• 58% get more of their news from the mobile phone than ANY OTHER source, vs. only 10% of those who have never viewed mobile video.
• 50% spend more time away from computers than in front of them, vs. the reported 21% of those not watching mobile video.

Source: Charts and data InsightExpress

JumpTap: Network Now Reaches 22 Million

Mobile ad network and search vendor JumpTap now says that its "premium ad network" reaches 42% of the US mobile internet audience, or 22 million people*, citing Nielsen figures. The premium network includes:

go2 Media, Hearst Magazines digital media, LatCel, Mobclix, MoFuse, and Weather Underground to an already impressive list of top tier properties. The network currently serves ads for hundreds of mobile sites, carriers and application developers including AT&T, Alltel, Ask.com, E! Online, Kargo (includes MotorTrend, Tiger Beat, Shape, US Magazine, Star Magazine, & BlackBook), LimeLife, MSNBC, and Shazam.

The company put out a release this morning that highlights its "momentum" in the market. I spoke briefly Friday to Paran Johar, JumpTap's CMO. He told me, among other things, that he's seeing "increasing mobile budgets, increasing seriousness" among advertisers. 

We discussed a range of industry metrics and he told me that the JumpTap's advertisers break out 60-40 in favor of CPM vs CPC. This is similar to what AdMob has indicated. 

Johar asserts that JumpTap is distinguished from other mobile networks by its carrier data targeting. In the US, for on-deck advertising with AT&T, US Cellular, Virgin Mobile and Boost (both Sprint properties), a range of carrier data are passed so that they can be leveraged for more relevant ad serving.

JumpTap started as a white label search provider, seeking to counter Google and Yahoo! with carriers. As Google and Yahoo! (and Microsoft) started to do more direct carrier deals, the company began to develop its ad network and that part of the business now represents the future. 

JumpTap and Medio Systems used to be almost indistinguishable in terms of their claims and presentation of their capabilities to the market. However I haven't heard anything from Medio in quite some time. JumpTap appears to be going strong. 

____

*Nielsen assumes a total US mobile Internet population of approximately 53 million. We believe the numbers are larger than that, although they decline if frequency of usage becomes a critical variable. 

Skyhook Releases 'How To' (Make Money) Guide for Apps Developers

Skyhook Wireless has released a white paper entitled "Developer’s Guide to In-Application Advertising: How developers today can make money off apps" (.pdf). As the title indicates, it's aimed at mobile app developers or would-be mobile developers. The document offers a range of "how to" information and advice, including best practices.

It's a kind of crash course on mobile advertising and the mobile ecosystem for those unfamilar with the wonderful world of apps or how to make money with them. In addition, there are also interesting bits of data sprinkled throughout, from Skyhook's recent survey of mobile app developers. For example, location and demographic targeting appear to be the most desired capabilities or qualities among developers:

At the end, the report also features a list of vendors: ad networks, analytics providers and "ad enablers."

Micro-Hoo Mobile: Comments from the Conf. Call Transcript

This morning's conference call with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer covered a broad range of topics related to the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal. Here are some excerpts from the call transcript related to mobile:

Bartz:

We want to invest in what is really important to our future success, including winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences . . .

I'm excited that this agreement provides us with the focus and the resources to invest in our audience properties, display advertising leadership, and mobile experiences . . .

We have the option of using the Microsoft technology for the mobile Web experience. It's not exclusive as it is on the PC. But we certainly have the benefit of it, and we will start, in fact, exercising that right to do it.

So, the only difference is it's not exclusive. If somewhere down the road we wanted to switch, we could, but there's no intent in that arena.

Ballmer: 

I think all of us would say we don't know what we don't know about all of the scenarios that we're going to try to invest in, in the mobile case. If -- and Carol can speak for herself, but it won't make sense to do a whole separate crawl of the Internet for Web sites to do mobile search, and yet what that really looks like, even whether the ad model for mobile search looks like the ad model frankly for PC search, I think that's an interesting question, and this gives Yahoo! flexibility to consider that broadly.

Bartz:

think the thing is for us is what we're very interested in, just like by the way with PC-based, we're very interested on doubling down on the mobile experience to integrate search as part of that, to integrate our content such as our normal finance, news, sports, homepage, that sort of thing. So, being able to have an integrated search is important, and it also frees us up to, as I said, really invest in the other areas of the mobile experience.

So, again it's a partnership that is very supportive, and allows Yahoo! to do what it does well, and that's really be the center of information, entertainment, friends, family, activity, and that sort of thing, both the desktop and the mobile experience we're looking for.

What this means is that Yahoo!, although not required, will be using Bing algorithmic search index for mobile. It makes sense from an economic perspective. Part of the reason Yahoo! is doing this deal is to outsource technology development and reduce costs. It would thus make no sense to invest in search for mobile and not on the PC. 

Mobile search monetization and how that will go is a little more unclear. One version of the story is: direct overlap between PC and mobile. But that's been more Google's approach. Yahoo! has treated PC and mobile search separately. So I'm unsure how this will play out. In the broader relationship Yahoo! will sell "premium search" (complex campagins to large advertisers) while Microsoft will handle the self-service aspect of the business. Yahoo! will thus manage the PC + mobile search and display ad campaigns for large advertisers.

Separately, there are open questions about how differentiated Yahoo! Search and Bing will be on the PC side, but they will certainly be very differentiated on the mobile side (compare m.bing.com with new.m.yahoo.com) despite the fact that they will use the same index. 

Microsoft & Yahoo Strike Deal: Mobile Thoughts & Implications

Microsoft and Yahoo! announced their long-awaited search deal this morning. Here's the press release which includes videos from both CEOs. Here's a site set up to explain the deal and here are the terms laid out by the release:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.   
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.   
• Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.   
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.
• Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.   
• Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.   
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.   
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

According to remarks made on the conference call, Yahoo! doesn't have to use Bing/MSFT's technology in mobile. There's more flexibility there for Yahoo! to maintain a separate search technology or work with other partners if it chose to do so. However it sounded like Yahoo! would be using the MSFT/Bing technology there as well. Part of the "flexibility" on the mobile side comes from uncertainty regarding how mobile advertising will play out.

Here's a paraphrase of remarks made by the two CEOs regarding mobile:

Bartz: We have option of using MSFT technology for the mobile experience. It’s not exclusive as on the PC. If somewhere down the road we want to switch we could.We’re very interested in doubling down on the mobile experience. Having an integrated search is important.

Baller: We don’t know all the scenarios involving mobile search. This gives Yahoo flexibility on the mobile side.

The two companies on the PC side are creating a single paid search market. There's more gray in the mobile execution. However I suspect that it will also play out the same way in mobile: a combined market for mobile paid search. On the PC side that means the reach of a combined Microsoft-Yahoo is approaching 30% market share; it will be something comparable on the mobile side. 

ChaCha 'Transformers' Ads Drive Big Awareness

Mobile answers service ChaCha released the results of a case study today based on an SMS campaign run on its network for the movie Transformers. It ran in June before the movie's theatrical release. We feature this case study in a white paper publishing later today on SMS marketing.

Insight Express performed the study. Here are some datapoints and takeaways:

• Males, 18-34, showed a dramatic 57% point increase in mobile ad awareness
• Teens showed increases in unaided awareness, mobile ad awareness and purchase intent
• Slightly older users, ages 19-24, responded best to the campaign with increases across all metrics
• The campaign outperformed Insight Express' mobile norms in unaided awareness and mobile ad awareness 

New Yahoo! Mobile Homepage (Re)Launches

Yahoo! recently launched its new, customizable homepage for the PC. Though in development for a year it represents a gutsy and postive move for the site. And in the past couple of days Yahoo! updated its mobile site, better aligning the new PC homepage with the mobile experience (though it's still not fully aligned).

The Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app was a dramatic improvement over the old Yahoo! Go application when it launched in Q1 of this year. And the new mobile Web portal in some respects offers a better experience than even the iPhone app.

The new mobile Yahoo.com is somewhat more streamlined, simpler and cleaner than the earlier version of the mobile website. It has three principal sections: Today, My Favorites and All Sites. The Today section is programmed by Yahoo and is essentially a news site featuring news, display ads and video. My Favorites is a highly customizable area that includes mail, a feed reader and incorporates social network updates ("Social Pulse"). It also allows for simultaneous updating of Facebook and Twitter. The former Yahoo! mobile social networking tool oneConnect appears to be gone. 

Finally All Sites is a useful collection of Yahoo! properties from Local and Messenger to Sports, Movies and Search. As an aside, the iPhone version of the site can tailor content (and ads) to user location because Safari now supports location (after the 3.0 software update). 

The layout and overall user experience on m.yahoo.com keep improving and these most recent changes and upgrades make the new mobile version of Yahoo! probably the most useful single destination on the mobile Internet. 

Opera: Mobile Web Stats for June

Opera has released its State of the Mobile Web report for June. The company said it crossed a milestone with 10 billion page views on the Opera Mini browser globally in the month.

Here are some the top-level data from this latest report on top sites and handsets:

Remember this reflects data from users who have downloaded the Opera browser and is not necessarily reflective of the mobile Internet as a whole. However it's likely to be directionally accurate. 

The success that Opera has enjoyed on the BlackBerry is partly attributable to the fact that the BlackBerry mobile browser experience is quite poor at the moment. 

AdMob: Where iPhone/iPod Touch Users Live

Ad network AdMob issued its June 2009 Mobile Metrics Report this morning. It focuses on the geographic distribution of iPhone and iPod Touch owners (Apple said in its recent earnings report that there are 45 million globally.) Here are the top-level findings from the June report:

• 54 percent of iPhone and iPod touch users are in the United States
• Following the U.S., France, Germany and the UK each had more than five percent of all iPhone and iPod touch devices
• iPod touch users represent 38 percent of total iPhone OS devices in North America
• Requests from the Android OS increased 25 percent month over month. Android has five percent worldwide OS share and is slightly ahead of Windows Mobile for the first time

Here are some charts from the report:

All of this must be qualified by the fact that this data comes from AdMob's network, which is not identical to the mobile Internet as a whole. However it's a large network and directionally consistent with mobile Internet trends more broadly.

The distribution of iPhone/iPod Touch ownership and usage is interesting to be sure but the bombshell in here is the data that Android-based usage is now bigger than Windows Mobile, this despite only one device (effectively) in the market for Android. This underscores the competitive urgency for Microsoft to get WinMo 6.5 and 7 into the market.