Hasta La Gadget!

Mobile ad platform Millennial Media has released their latest Mobile Mix report, covering Q2 2013, and the company is changing how things work this time around by changing its “Top 20 Phones” list to a “Top 20 Devices,” and adding tablets into the mix along with smartphones and feature phones. This resulted in Apple going from occupying just a single spot at the top of the chart, to taking three of the top four places, thanks to the presence of the iPod touch and iPad in addition to the iPhone.

Samsung still occupies the number two spot with its Galaxy S phones, which is unchanged from the pervious quarter, and gains some additional presence in the top ten thanks to the appearance of the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note in the top 10 list. HTC and Motorola lose some representation on the list, however and Amazon debuts with the Kindle Fire ranking number eight overall for impressions.

Apart from the changes in the Top 20 Devices, the rest of Millennial’s methodology remains unchanged. So Apple taking home 39.3 percent of the overall impressions broken down by device manufacturer, with Samsung following up in second place with 26.1 percent, really does represent a nearly 3 percentage point increase for Apple, and a slight dip for Samsung. HTC falls below LG in fifth place, too so there has been some shift between the quarters, probably attributable to HTC One’s failure to truly do much to impress consumers. The Apple bump is harder to explain, since a refresh is imminent and no new iOS hardware was introduced between Q1 and Q2 2013.

Apple’s share of overall impressions as measured by mobile OS also jumped. The result is an 8 percentage point bump for Apple’s iOS in terms of OS share of overall ad impressions, compared to a 5 percentage point increase for Android. Millennial says tablet impressions continue to grow, so Apple leading that market could be what’s helping iOS increase its share. Android is still growing, however, with both the top dogs the big losers here were Windows and BlackBerry, both of which saw impression share dive. That is completely understandable given the increasing importance of tablets. BlackBerry shed over half its share, for instance, dropping from 15 percent to 7 percent of overall mobile ads served.

Tablets continue to be led by iOS devices, so the iPad is winning out. Android accounts for 44 percent of tablets seen by Millennial’s ads, but that’s actually down just slightly from the previous quarter’s report. Perhaps surprisingly, the Google Nexus 10 saw considerable growth (impressions climbed 51 percent sequentially from Q1) while the Nexus 7 held things steady at 7 percent of all Android tablet impressions. The new Nexus 7 might help that number rise in Millennial’s next reporting period.

Regional growth of specific manufacturers point to Samsung doing something right in specific market segments, with that manufacturer growing its share of impressions in the EMEA region by 13 percentage points from 18 to 31 percent. Apple raised its own impressions just one percentage point to 42 percent during the same time period, but iOS as a platform rose from 23 percent to 34 percent in the Asia-Pacific region year over year, while Android shed 4 percentage points (down to 60 percent overall) and BlackBerry did the same, with Windows falling off the map near completely.

The big change here is in terms of how Millennial presents and counts devices. Tablets now make up a far more important category than feature phones when it comes to mobile advertising, so it’s natural to see those included here alongside those older-style devices. Plus, it does a much better job of showing why Apple continues to dominate overall in ad impressions among mobile device makers than it did previously, when Millennial showed just the lonely iPhone atop the chart as the sole hardware from the Mac maker.

A lot of headlines have focused on the new Galaxy S4 as a potential iPhone challenger in terms of hype and mindshare, but mobile ad firm Velti offers a different perspective in its February summary of global exchange data from its network. The company still sees iOS and iPhone dominating among mobile advertisers, despite the rising tide of Android devices.

Velti saw that 8 of 10 devices on its global ad exchange were iOS-based, including the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. Samsung managed to take two of the top 10 spots, but placed relatively low on the list with the Galaxy SII and Galaxy SIII at 7 and 10 respectively. The Galaxy SII is the only one to crack the top five in any region, coming in fifth overall in Europe, and while in general older phones ruled (there’s generally bound to more of them active out there), the iPhone managed to already crack the top 3 in Asia. That’s good news for Apple, which is focusing more attention on that region with recent launches.

Apple’s iPhone and iPod devices ruled overall with a 38.1 percent share of Velti ad impressions, with the various iPad models making up 17.2 percent. By comparison, all Galaxy devices together only managed less than 5 percent of ad traffic in February. iOS ads were also better performing in terms of effective cost per thousand (ePCM), garnering 20 percent more than their Android counterparts. That’s in spite of a higher click through rate on Android: ads on Google’s mobile platform earned around 50 percent more clicks than those on Apple’s.

Taking tablets on their own, there isn’t even remotely any competition for iOS. Android tablets as a whole account for only 0.7 percent, according to Velti, with the iPad making up 97.5 percent, with its share mostly shifting from standard iPads to iPad minis between January and February of 2013.

Overall, the picture on the advertiser side doesn’t look to be changing very much at all, despite Android growth in worldwide sales. iOS actually gained share between January and February according to Velti, though only a very small 0.3 percent, but the firm said that iOS has earned more than 60 percent of advertiser demand for the past six months running.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will be watched for a number of reasons, but it may be most interesting to see if it can help sway the needle with mobile advertisers. He who controls the spice controls the universe, after all, which in this case means that Apple’s domination of the mobile ad world definitely give it a leg up among developers and media content providers.