With the Apple App Store celebrating its first anniversary this Saturday, 11 July, mobile ad network AdMob has released figures showing Apples share of the global, UK and US mobile markets, and consumer usage of iPhone apps. The latest stats reveal that the iPhone now accounts for almost half of all mobile web traffic in the UK.
iPhone Apps:
- The top iPhone apps had more than one million users in the UK in May 2009
- 5% of iPhone apps in AdMob's network had more than 100,000 active users in May 2009
- 14% of iPhone apps in AdMob's network had between 10,000 – 100,000 active users in May 2009
- 27% of iPhone apps in AdMob's network had between 1,000 – 10,000 active users in May 2009
Thomas Schulz, MD EMEA for AdMob, says that with more than 50,000 apps added to the App Store in the first 12 months, it is becoming increasingly hard for developers to capture the attention of consumers.
Many developers are now using mobile advertising to drive downloads of their applications, says Schulz. Not only is this boosting sales of paid-for apps, it is also helping developers to monetise the traffic generated by their free applications.
AdMobs traffic figures reveal the massive disparity between Apples share of the Smartphone market around 8% globally and its share of the mobile web browsing market in May 2009, as detailed below:
UK: 
- 48.7% of ad requests came from Apple handsets (iPhone and iPod Touch)
- 28.4% of ad requests came from the iPhone
- 282,493,761 ad requests from users in the UK
US:
- 45.1% of ad requests came from Apple handsets
- 25.7% of ad requests came from the iPhone
- 3,804,373,544 ad requests from users in the US
Global:
- 31.4% of ad requests came from Apple handsets
- 18.6% of ad requests came from the iPhone
- 7,997,946,483 ad requests from users around the world
With operators and handset makers launching App Stores, some question whether Apple's domainance will continue. Andrew Bud, Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, told Mobile Marketing Magazine recently:
“I believe Nokias Ovi store will be far more significant. With the App Store, you can reach 2% of the population; the Ovi store can reach something like 40%. One is a nice boutique, the other is Tesco.
Given the way in which Apple has singlehandledly created the mobile apps market, however, it would be a brave man to bet against them.
