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. 

Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich out on Nov. 17

To all the big fans of Google's Android, Samsung Electronics will begin shipping its new Galaxy Nexus Android smartphone Nov. 17. The device is the first to run Google's long-awaited Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich") operating system overhaul.

A Samsung Mobile tweet confirms the manufacturer will begin rolling out the Galaxy Nexus to European consumers on Nov. 17. Mashable reports the smartphone is slated for a November release in the U.S., Canada and Asia as well.

Android 4.0 delivers the tablet-optimized innovations introduced in Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb update to all devices in an effort to reduce platform fragmentation. Google first confirmed Ice Cream Sandwich's forthcoming launch during its annual I/O developer conference in May. The company promised, at that time, that moving forward, the same version of Android will run across all devices, regardless of screen size.

Highlights of Android 4.0 include an evolved user interface making common actions more visible, enabling users to navigate using simplified, more intuitive gestures. A new typeface optimized for high-resolution screens touts enhanced readability and new animations and feedback support for more compelling interactions. Android 4.0 also touts new System Bar virtual buttons bringing instant navigation to Back, Home and Recent Apps, as well as more visual multitasking and more interactive notifications.

Android dominates 43.7 percent of the U.S. smartphone market according to data issued earlier this month by research firm comScore. Android-powered tablets lag far behind Apple's pacesetting iPad, however: Researcher IDC reports that Apple's iOS commands 68.3 percent of the worldwide tablet market as of the second quarter of 2011, with Android trailing at 26.8 percent

Google Mobile Ad Revenue is on track to hit $2.5 Billion per annum

Google confirmed in its recent Q3 earning that its ad revenues via mobile devices had grown by two-and-half times over the last year and was on track to hit US$2.5 billion per annum. This is up from the US$1 billion figure Google cited a year ago, which was the first time it had attributed a dollar value to its mobile business.

190 million devices had now been activated globally and Google is upbeat on the platform’s future roadmap. Revenue growth continues to accelerate driven primarily by mobile search. This growth is driven both by the underlying expansion of Android devices and tablets.

In Q3, Google reported that total revenues grew by a third year-on-year to US$9.7 billion, while net profit was up by a quarter to US$2.7 billion. The results were above most analysts’ expectations. Google also used its earnings to announce that its Google+ social network had passed 40 million users.

Apple's iOS platform driving 55% of worldwide mobile internet traffic

Apple's iOS operating system now accounts for 54.65 percent of worldwide mobile web traffic, more than three times Google's Android, according to new data published by Net Applications. In fact, at 16.26 percent global market share across mobile phones and tablets, Android net traffic even trails Java ME (18.52 percent). Symbian follows at 6.12 percent, trailed by Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry at 3.29 percent.

The iOS platform's dominance over the mobile net landscape is somewhat surprising given that Android controls 48 percent of the worldwide smartphone market according to recent Canalys data, far ahead of iOS at 19 percent.

Apple's iPad continues to own the worldwide tablet market, increasing to 68.3 percent global market share during the second quarter, up from 65.7 percent a quarter ago. At the same time, Android's tablet market share slipped from 34.0 percent in the first quarter to 26.8 percent, due both to Apple's dominance and the introduction of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, which captured 4.9 percent market share.

By 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the web via mobile devices than PCs or other wireline channels according to a forecast issued last month by research firm IDC. The number of mobile net users is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015, thanks to the increasing smartphone penetration and sales of tablets like the iPad. IDC had predicted that PC-based web access across the U.S. will first stagnate then slowly decline, with Western Europe and Japan following the same trend.

Good Bye Steve Jobs

Today is the passing of Steve Jobs, a great visionary who brought us the world largest company, Apple, the most powerful mobile devices, iPhone and iPad. He will always be remembered the Father of Mobility. RIP.

This is a powerful video to honor him. Its a speech by Steve at Stanford Uni in 2005 and the most powerful speech that i had watched over and over again. It sure did inspire me and changed the way i looked at life, i am sure you will find it inspiring. You got to figure out what you love and do what you love.