If mobile advertising could sing, it might now be crooning the Elvis classic, “I’m All Shook Up.”
Modern technology promises a steady stream of new products, new solutions, and new players. It’s “out with the old, in with the new” in a constantly shifting landscape. But the latest news is certain to have an impact: Android is the new Number One.
According to Opera Mediaworks, the mobile advertising space is experiencing “big shifts” in both traffic and monetization. The company announced in its first quarter 2014 “State of Mobile Advertising” report that Google’s Android OS has surpassed Apple’s iOS to take the top spot in mobile ad traffic.
Android has not only bested iOS, it is also experiencing significant year-over-year monetization gains in global mobile advertising. Opera Mediaworks posits that this is the first instance in which the two behemoths have swapped positions. But the difference is still slight. Android is grabbing 42.8 percent of traffic compared to 38.2 percent for iOS.
Among other tidbits in the Opera Mediaworks report is the fact that Samsung devices logged 60 percent of impressions. Following closely behind are LG, Motorola, HTC, and ZTE. In the regional markets pecking order, the report ranks the U.S. as the largest mobile ad market, followed by Asia and Europe.
While Android leads the pack, the true take-away may be that more change is inevitable. With total mobile ad monetization increasing from 26.7 percent of total ad revenue to more than 33 percent in the last year, the trajectory is up, up, up. Future shake-ups appear inevitable.
