InMobi’s latest Mobile Insights Report revealed that the Asia Pacific mobile ad market showed steady growth of 17% in Q2 2011, while the Australian mobile ad market even grew by 38% to over one billion quarterly ad impressions in the quarter ending (QE) July 2011.

The company’s report leverages consumer surveys via mobile devices, combined with data sourced from its global mobile advertising network which served 104.9 billion mobile ad impressions in Q2 2011 to 314 million consumers across six continents in165 countries.

 

Key global findings include:

  • InMobi’s global network grew by 23% gaining nearly 20 billion mobile ad impressions over the past quarter, serving a total of 104.9 billion impressions in Q2 2011.
  • 45% growth in both smartphone ad impressions and in application ads, points towards increasing consumer adoption of smartphones and the popularity of applications.
    • Smartphones now represent 38% of all mobile ads on the InMobi network.
    • In application advertising continues to grow quickly, although it only represents 17% of all mobile ads on the InMobi network.
  • Among the top three operating systems, only Android managed to gain share points (+1.3).
  • The Apple iPhone and Apple iPod each gained +1.7 share points to remain the top two devices globally.
    • Nearly one out of every 10 ads in Q2 globally was on an Apple iPhone.


Key Asia Pacific findings include:

  • Asia Pacific mobile impressions on the InMobi network grew beyond 55 billion ad impressions in Q2 2011.
    • The region gained over eight billion quarterly impressions (17%) over Q1.
  • Smartphone impressions grew twice as quickly as advanced phone impressions.
    • Smartphones gained over three billion impressions, contributing 39.5% of total growth in mobile impressions in the region.
  • With 27% market share, Nokia OS remains the top operating system in the region, although it lost 2.2 percentage points this quarter.
    • Android and iPhone OS continue to capture considerable share, now representing 18.1% of all InMobi impressions in the Asia Pacific region, up from 13.5% in Q1 2011.
  • Nokia devices represent the majority (51% share) of ad impressions in the region, while growth in Android helped Samsung and HTC gain share.
    • Samsung continues to be the fastest growing manufacturer in the Asia Pacific region, gaining 1.4 share points quarter-on-quarter to reach 16.9% market share.
  • The Apple iPhone remains the single most popular device in Asia Pacific with 7.6% share.
    • Nokia devices hold 11 of the top 15 device ranks, although a lot of the Nokia devices lost share in Q2 2011.
  • China advanced the fastest among all countries in Asia Pacific gaining 1.4 share points.
    • India continues to represent four of every 10 ad impressions in the region.
    • 13 of the top 14 countries in the region gained considerable impressions from Q1 to Q2.

Atul Satija, Vice President and Managing Director - Asia Pacific, InMobi commented: “The significant growth in smartphone impressions points towards a rich media environment that enables greater innovation and increased consumer interaction. InMobi is constantly working toward creating device agnostic, efficient, and engaging mobile ad experiences using our best of breed technology and services. Our recent acquisition of creative production company Sprout will help us deliver scalable rich media content to devices supporting HTML5, further boosting mobile media consumption globally.”

Key Australian findings include:

  • The market grew by 38% serving over one billion impressions in QE July 2011.
  • Smartphone impressions grew by 52% to close to 900 million impressions in QE July 2011.
    • While smartphones gained about 300 million impressions over QE April 2011, advanced phone impressions decreased by 4% to 198 million impressions in QE July 2011.
  • App inventory grew by 44% compared to a 31% growth for WAP in QE July 2011.
    • 5% more App inventory than WAP shows higher take up of applications amongst consumers driven by a high penetration of iPhones in the market.
    • This also underpins the continued growth of the app market within the mobile ecosystem as a preferred tool for customer engagement as compared with mobile websites across the country.
  • iOS took the lion’s share of the mobile ad market with 47.9%, with Android coming in next at 17.7%.
    • The iPhone still remains the most popular device for users, though Android continues to grow steadily in Australia (+5 share points) compared to overall APAC growth of +3.4 share points in Q2 2011.
  • Apple remains the top manufacturer by impressions even with a decline of -2.3 share points over QE April 2011.
    • Nokia suffered the biggest loss in impressions with -5.0 share points.
    • ZTE, Samsung, Access and LG also suffered similar declines in ad impressions with -0.8, -0.6, -0.5 and -0.5 share points, respectively.
  • Apple devices lead in Australia with the iPhone in first place with 37.2% market share and the iPod in third place with 6.9% share. RIM’s Blackberry 9700 moved to second place with an increase of +7.7 share points while Samsung’s GT-I9000 tied with the iPad for fourth place with a 3.9% share.

“While not always first movers, Australians have consistently embraced technology and mobile is no exception. With the Australian penetration level of smartphones as one of the highest in the world, and telcos understanding their customer’s needs for data packages, there really hasn't been a better time to use mobile advertising”, comments Rob Marston, Regional Director, Australia and New Zealand, InMobi, adding: “As with most new technology, consumers are ahead of advertisers when it comes to mobile and InMobi is committed to investing ahead of the curve. Mobile advertising has progressed significantly from pure SMS to banners, Rich Media and indeed 3D ads. The personal nature of a phone, combined with the potential to entertain, educate and inform, makes mobile a must have part of any media schedule.”

Based on its huge collection of data, a maturity in mobile advertising acceptance with 66% of ads could be tracked on Apple iOS or Android devices in Australia. Although the Apple iOS saw a decrease of -2.3 share points in ad impressions over QE April 2011, it is still taking the lion’s share of the market with 47.9% of the total impressions in the country and remains almost four times the global average.

By Daniela La Marca