Admob dominates Android ad space

89% of ad-enabled Android apps use its SDK. App search firm Xyologic says half of the top 1000 downloaded Android apps in October have had an SDK from a mobile ad or network.

The study also found that 22% of the top 1000 downloaded apps on Android in October have two or more mobile ad network SDKs. And it revealed that, even after all these years, the original mobile ad network AdMob is still way ahead of the other big networks.

Its 89% share dwarfs Millennial Media at 34%, Inmobi at 22%, AdWhirl by Admob at 19% and Mobclix at 15%. The remaining 15% include AdMarvel, Smaato, Burstly, Mopub, Nexage, Fiksu, and Jumptap who each make up less than 3% each of the overall market share. However, together, apps with their SDKs apps represent 26% of all downloads in October among the top downloaded apps with mobile advertising.

China is the No.1 smartphone market by volume

China is now the world's biggest smartphone market by volume, having taken the crown from the US in Q3 according to Strategy Analytics.

Smartphone shipments in China grew 58% sequentially during the quarter to a record 23.9 million units compared to a 7% slump in US sales to 23.3 million units. The strong growth to operators' aggressive handset subsidy strategies, as well as the increasing availability of low-cost Android phones from ZTE and other Chinese brands.

Nokia is the leading smartphone vendor in China, having shipped 6.8 million units during the quarter. Samsung is second, with 4.2 million units. In the US, HTC leads the pack, while Apple is the chief contender.

China is in a pole position of the worldwide mobile computing boom. It has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore. Beyond being the largest smartphone market, the acceleration in adoption and growth in the use of mobile internet had made this an important media that most marketers must take note. A strategy on mobile is a MUST for any organizations moving forward.

Nine out of ten top Brands are on app stores

A new report by mobile analytics firm Distimo says 91 per cent of the top 100 brands now has a presence in at least one of the major mobile app stores. The rate stood at 51 per cent 18 months ago.

Distimo defines its top brands as those contained in the Interbrand 2011 Best Brands report such as Coca-Cola, BMW, Disney and IBM. The report reveals the average number of apps published at a massive 24. Pretty remarkable. But dig down and you see that the figure is skewed by the output of firms like Disney (636) and Sony (285).

The primary driver for this activity seems to be brand awareness as only 27 per cent of the brands have released paid apps: the rest go free. Apple’s App Store is unsurprisingly the primary destination of these brands. Indeed, 86 per cent have a presence in iTunes, actually you'd think it would be all of them. Meanwhile 66 per cent are on iPad, 59 per cent in Android Market, 26 per cent in BlackBerry’s App World and nine per cent on Ovi.

Among the top brands, it's media companies that are the busiest, with an average of 247 apps each, followed by software firms (36 apps per company), business services (31 per cent) and automotive (29 per cent). The report says 2,343 branded apps are available from companies on Interbrand's Top 100 list.

Samsung No.1 on Smartphone

Shipments grow 44 per cent to give it 23.8 per cent of the market. The firm sold 27.8 million units in Q3, up nearly four times from a year ago, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. That helped the Korean firm's smartphone profit double to $2.2bn. The 44 per cent growth is almost four times as much as last year, and is attributable to the great success of its Galaxy range and, to a lesser extent, its Wave bada devices. And the growth also takes Samsung ahead of Apple, which saw iPhone sales fall by 16 per cent to 17.1 million units in Q3, according to the report.

Apple’s sluggish numbers have been put down to consumers choosing to wait for the iPhone 4S, so in theory Q4 should see a rise in Apple sales. It was certainly off to a good start selling four million units in its opening weekend. Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the market in the fourth quarter.