In Q1, 2013, Samsung mobile devices showed stronger CTRs (clickthrough rates) than Apple devices in the US and UK, according to an Adfonic report – the first time the manufacturer has outperformed Apple for an entire quarter.

In January, Samsung devices had a CTR index of 1.09, 15 per cent higher than Apple’s index of 0.95. By March, Samsungs index had risen to 1.41, while Apples fell to 0.83 – meaning Samsung scored 70 per cent higher.

Thats fairly surprising, given the historical performance of Apple devices, which indexed higher than Samsung in every quarter of 2012. Its even more surprising when you consider that this figure includes both smartphones and tablets, and despite the iPads market dominance, Samsung tablets arent too far behind in terms of CTR – and look to be catching up.

While iPads CTR index of 1.1 was 40 per cent higher than Samsung tablets 0.66 in January 2013, by March this lead had reduced to 18 per cent, with Samsungs index increasing to 0.86, and Apples dropping slightly to 1.05.

Tablets overall continued to gain ad share, accounting for 15 per cent of all ad requests in Q1, 2013.