New Devices Boost Android Ecosystem

The Android ecosystem has undergone considerable changes in the last few months, according to a 27 April report from AdMob. The report considers the impact that new Android device launches have had on that ecosystem.

While in September 2009, just two devices—the HTC Dream and the HTC Magic—accounted for 96 percent of the Android OS traffic that AdMob measured based on ad requests, by March 2010 Android traffic was split amongst 11 devices: the Motorola Droid, Cliq and Milestone; the HTC Tattoo, Hero, Dream and Magic; the Samsung Moment, Galaxy Spica and Behold 2; and the Google Nexus One. (Though branded under the Google name, the Nexus One is another success for manufacturer HTC.)

By contrast, during those same seven months, iPhone OS traffic was consistently attributable to just two devices, the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

32 Percent On Motorola Droid

In total, AdMob reported, by March, 34 Android-running devices, made by 12 manufacturers, were available on the market. And yet, again in March, 32 percent of Android OS traffic was attributable to just one device, the Motorola Droid.

Verizon Wireless, which offers the Droid, announced during its fiscal first-quarter conference call on 22 April that it sold even more Droids during the first quarter of 2010 than it had during the holiday-friendly fourth quarter of 2009.

Following the Droid, in second and third place, were the HTC Dream and Motorola Cliq. In the United Kingdom, AdMob said, the HTC Hero led the pack, followed by the HTC Dream and HTC Magic.

With so many Android-running devices on the market, Android developers face a greater challenge than those creating applications for the iPhone OS, the report pointed out.”

Until the launch of the iPad, iPhone OS developers only had to consider a single form factor when designing their applications,” AdMob wrote. “In contrast, the Android platform supports many devices with different characteristics that must be taken into account when developing for the platform.”

For example, the Motorola Droid runs Android 2.1, has 256MB of RAM and features a keyboard. By contrast, the HTC Hero, which accounted for 19 percent of traffic, runs Android 1.5 and has 288MB of RAM and no keyboard.

Android Traffic Has Grown

Despite this, Android traffic has grown at a compounded monthly rate of 32 percent each month, increasing from 72 million ad requests in March 2009 to 2 billion in March 2010, AdMob said.

As for the iPhone OS, the most popular iPhone OS products on the AdMob network was the iPhone 3GS, followed by the second-generation iPod Touch. Together the two generated 86 percent of traffic in March, reported AdMob, which said its network saw 6.1 billion requests from iPhone OS devices.