iPhone, Android boost mobile Web usage

IDG News Service - Newcomers to the mobile-phone market are driving more wireless Web access at the expense of the phone makers that have been around for a while, according to a new report from AdMob.

AdMob serves ads to 9,000 mobile Web sites and 3,000 applications. It tallies the types of phones that are querying those sites and releases periodic reports on its findings.

In August, AdMob found that 40% of queries came from iPhones, up from 33% six months ago. Android users hitting AdMob sites grew to 7% of users, up from 2% in February. The Palm Pre, which launched in June, 4% of traffic in August.

While those new entrants to the mobile market are growing their share of mobile online usage, the established phone makers are losing share.

Users of Nokia's Symbian phones who hit AdMob's ads dropped from 43% in February to 34% last month. BlackBerry users fell from driving 10% of traffic six months ago to 8% in August. Windows Mobile phones went from generating 7% of hits to AdMob sites in February to 4% in August.

AdMob also ranks handset models by the level of traffic they produce. Even though Nokia is slipping in terms of volume of traffic, it has 12 of the top 20 phones that hit AdMob's network. The iPhone has the No. 1 spot, followed by the first Android phone and the Nokia N70. No Windows Mobile phones appear in the top 20 and three BlackBerry devices made it to the list.

While many of the more established phone makers have tried to encourage mobile Internet usage, many end-users complained that poor browsers and hardware prevented them from spending much time online. Users of the iPhone, with its easy-to-use browser and large screen, quickly became the heaviest mobile Internet users on the market. While Android and Palm have followed some of the trends set by the iPhone, other phone and operating-system developers that have been around for some time do not appear to have caught up.