AdMob has released its December 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report. The report focuses on regional changes in manufacturer and Smartphone Operating System (OS) share. It finds that Apple and the iPhone OS leads in Western Europe, North America, Latin American and Oceania, due to millions of iPhones and iPod touches sold this year and heavy application usage. Nokia and the Symbian OS continues to lead in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe with its vast portfolio of devices.
The December 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report breaks down, by region, trended manufacturer share across all mobile devices, Smartphone OS share, and the top handsets and Smartphones in the AdMob network. Regional highlights from the report include:

• Western Europe: Apple made strong gains in manufacturer share in 2009. In Q4 2009 the Apple iPhone and iPod touch generated more than half of the total requests from the region at the expense of Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Android had a strong Q4 2009 and generated an 8% share of Smartphone requests, second only to North America in penetration.
• North America: In Q4 2009, Apple led with 40%, followed by Samsung with 17% and Motorola with 11%. The iPhone generated 54% of Smartphone requests in Q4 2009. Android share grew throughout the year, reaching 27% in Q4, by far the highest penetration in any region.
• Asia: Nokia continues to be the leading manufacturer in Asia by a wide margin, with 53% of requests in Q4 2009. After launching in several countries in Asia in 2009, the iPhone had a strong Q4 and doubled its share of Smartphone requests to 27%.
• Latin America: Several device manufacturers had significant share in Q4 2009, Apple led with 39%, Nokia had 15% and Sony Ericsson had 11% of device requests. The Sony PlayStation Portable was the number three device in December 2009. Although it only generated 8% of Smartphone requests, RIM had three of the top 10 Smartphones in the region.
• Africa: Nokias share remained fairly steady in 2009, generating more than 50% of requests throughout the year. In Q4, Samsung and Sony Ericsson devices generated 18% and 9% of requests, respectively. Symbian was the dominant smartphone OS generating 87% of Smartphone requests and accounting for nine of the top 10 smartphones in Q4 2009.
• Oceania: Apples share increased dramatically throughout 2009 and its devices are responsible for the vast majority of requests in the region. The top 10 Smartphones in Q4 2009 included the iPhone, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, BlackBerry 9000 and six different Nokia models.
• Eastern Europe: Nokias share decreased slightly throughout the year to 35% in Q4 2009. Apple, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung devices generated 23%, 12% and 9% of requests, respectively. Eight of the top 10 Smartphones in the region were Nokia devices, including the 6300, N70, and N95.

AdMob stores and analyses handset and operator data from every ad request in its network of more than 15,000 mobile websites and iPhone, Android, and webOS applications to optimise ad serving. Each month, the AdMob Mobile Metrics Report aggregates this data to provide insights into major trends in the mobile ecosystem. The AdMob share is calculated by the percentage of requests received from a particular handset; it is a measure of relative mobile web and application usage and does not represent handset sales.
You can access the full report, as well as past reports from previous months, here.