Global mobile ad traffic increased by 52 per cent in Q4 2013, according to a report from Opera Mediaworks.

The US accounts for the vast majority of traffic on Operas platform (48.5 per cent), though this is down significantly from 64 per cent last year. Asia Pacific (22.8 per cent) and Europe (15.2 per cent) are a distant second and third.

During the period, Android accounted for 35.9 per cent of mobile ad traffic on smartphones, beating iOSs share of 28.7 per cent. Taking tablets into account, however, puts Apples devices in the lead, with a 43.4 per cent share compared to Androids 37.7 per cent.

Perhaps more importantly, when it comes to revenue, iOS is a clear winner, with a 55.7 per cent share of mobile ad revenue, versus 31.7 per cent for Android.

The report also found that the number of smartphones and tablets increased by 13 per cent in the US between 24-26 December, and by 22 per cent in Europe.

“2013 was a tremendous year for mobile advertising,” said Opera Mediaworks CEO Mahi de Silva. “At agencies, mobile campaigns moved from the back burner to the front and rich media ads replaced boring banners. Many publishers found their smartphone and tablet traffic eclipse their desktop internet traffic, and some even made more money from mobile advertising than desktop.

“With a 13 per cent jump in the growth of new devices during Christmas just in the US, we expect even more growth in 2014. We anticipate the global media spend on mobile advertising will make up 20 per cent of all digital advertising worldwide in 2014.”