Smartphone adoption driving mobile ad growth

The global mobile advertising ecosystem continued to enjoy strong growth during the second quarter of 2011. Ad impressions increased by 23 per cent compared to the end of March to reach almost 105 billion requests by end-June, according to independent ad network InMobi.

Smartphones and tablets were the driving force behind this increase, with smartphone requests climbing 45 per cent quarter over quarter to reach 39 billion by end-June. In- app advertising is growing quickly but still only represents 17 per cent of all ads on the InMobi network as it is really only well used in a few key markets.

By and large, mobile web browser advertising is the favoured medium and experienced 19 per cent growth in terms of impressions.

Apple is a rising star in terms of manufacturers targeted by ad requests, although Nokia still rules the roost by a clear margin. Nokia devices took 38 .7 per cent of all InMobi ad impressions worldwide, down 2.6 per cent quarter on quarter. While Apple devices came in with 14.7 per cent of all impressions, up 4.7 per cent quarter on quarter.

Samsung holds a similar position to Apple, with a long drop to the next placed vendor, Sony Ericsson, at 7.4 per cent of ads targeted. The rest of the market is considerably fragmented.

The Apple iPhone and Apple iPod each gained +1.7 market share points to remain the top two devices targeted globally. Nearly one out of every ten ads targeted in the second quarter by InMobi globally was on an Apple iPhone.