5 ms·

Android Passes iPhone Web Traffic In U.S.

84 points by andr 16y ago

isamuel 16y ago
It would be a wee bit more accurate to say that Android phones fetched more ads on the AdMob network (which is owned by Google) than the iPhone did.
- glhaynes 16y ago
  As someone who doesn't know much about the ad business nor Android phones: do we expect that most of those ad requests came from Android browsers or from Android apps? Do iPhone apps often use AdMob ads?
- papachito 16y ago
  AdMob is still not owned by Google for now.
- eli 16y ago
  No one's claiming it to be a perfect sample of all traffic on the web, but that doesn't make it worthless. And I really don't think Google is juking the stats.
progr 16y ago
1. Admob is Google. 2. This is AD traffic. 3. != news
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Given how many are predicting that the mobile web is a key component, if not the dominant component of the future of the web itself, and further given how many HN readers are running, or would like run some kind of web-focused startup. I don't see how this can NOT be HN relevant news. Regardless of what your personal preferences are for one mobile platform vs another, the increased competition among the leading mobile platforms is driving down prices and driving up innovation in the mobile market. All of which is driving greater penetration of web-capable smartphone vs plain old "feature phones". All of which is likely to make the "mobile web" and important part of being competitive in any web-based venture. Or at least, that's my perspective. :-)
IgorPartola 16y ago
My prediction is that we will be in the same situation with iPhone vs Andriod that we are now with Mac vs Windows in 5-7 years. Andriod will be the cheaper but less polished product sold to the masses, while the iPhone will be a more upscale, more expensive product for the people with discriminating taste. Right now there is a lot of innovation going on in the mobile market, but the reality is that soon some features will become standard or even (gasp!) interoperable. At that point rapid "breadth-first" innovation will stop and we'll be looking at a competition of who has the nicer screen or longer battery life or faster processor, etc., and not at all at how apps are distributed, or multitasking is done. P.S.: In 100 years works like "cell phone" and "app" will be SAT words : ).
- enjo 16y ago
  The gap in usability between Android devices and the iPhone is pretty small. With Sense from HTC, it's even smaller. I've been lucky enough to get to test-drive the HTC Incredible and it's most certainly on par with anything the iPhone currently offers. Google is pushing Android in the right direction at a really fast clip. I absolutely think Android will dominate in terms of market-share in the next two years (unless Apple starts loosening control over the iPhone). I think that issues like how applications are distributed and those particulars over multi-tasking (Android still has an entire class of Apps that won't run on iPhone OS 4.0) are going to continue to play a big role in the competitive environment for years to come. I just don't see Apple coming off of it's hard line position on these things. In the end I think Android wins because it simply opens the door for more innovation from a much larger group of smart people. It enables broader categories of application development. At the same time the shotgun strategy phone development is a proven one. Just look at Series 60 or even windows PC's for a roadmap.
  - IgorPartola 16y ago
    I think Apple will have to loosen its grip the same way it had to do it for their desktop/laptop offerings. They used to offer really cools stuff but then the cost of not having them be able to talk to the beige boxes became too high. Also you are comparing HTC Incredible to 3G/3GS. I guess we'll see if the 4G iPhone is actually another step above everybody else.
AndrewWarner 16y ago
I don't see how this can be true. iPhone far outsells Android, no?
- IgorPartola 16y ago
  Sales are not the same as usage. Also see this: http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005344/android-unit-sales-catching-iphones/ http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005344/android-unit-sa...
- smokinn 16y ago
  I don't see how this is surprising. iPhone is a single device. There are many Android phones with many more to come. I would be surprised if any one device (say, Motorola's Droid for example) surpassed the iPhone but the Android OS as a whole? Not surprised.
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  The biggest flaw with the numbers is that it doesn't include iPod Touch or iPad traffic, as they are not smartphones. A second issue is that, because it is US numbers, there is only one carrier with iPhones, which will limit their numbers (presumably in exchange for a big bag of cash).
  - abstractbill 16y ago
    The biggest flaw with the numbers is that it doesn't include iPod Touch or iPad traffic, as they are not smartphones. Why is that a flaw? Why should the numbers include those devices?
    - czhiddy 16y ago
      > Why is that a flaw? Why should the numbers include those devices? My guess is that he's trying to compare OS vs OS, as opposed to OS vs device. Do these #s include traffic from Android tablets or MIDs? (Are there even any available for purchase at the moment?)
    - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
eli 16y ago
Placing AdMob Metrics in Context: http://metrics.admob.com/2009/10/placing-admob-metrics-in-context/ http://metrics.admob.com/2009/10/placing-admob-metrics-in-co...
jbarciauskas 16y ago
Please forgive the metacomment, but god TechCrunch is terrible, I've never been so frustrated reading a blog 1) What's with the unreadable, unlinked graphs? I can barely make them out 2) I tried to go to the source by clicking the "released" link, which took me to... another TechCrunch article! 3) All the other links in the article are to other TechCrunch articles too! How's that for sourcing... 4) I looked all over for a Source: link at the bottom, like Engadget and virtually every other news aggregator blog out there has, but unless I'm blind, no dice.
- axod 16y ago
  5) When I copy and paste a line from their article, they add "Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/admob-android-passes-iphone-web-traffic-in-u-s/#ixzz0mK83QfoW http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/admob-android-passes-iphone.... IMHO That's just lame.
  - tvon 16y ago
    Especially if you are trying to address specific points from the article on your comments on their site (or anywhere else).
  - dpritchett 16y ago
    You can thank Tynt for that - and it's not just used by TechCrunch. The easiest way to opt out is to block tcr.tynt.com in your hosts/adblock/privoxy settings. Offending file: http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js
  - glhaynes 16y ago
    One wonders what percentage of the time that gets manually edited out right after pasting. 95%+?
javery 16y ago
Of all the apps I use on a daily basis I can think of only one that has AdMob ads running. I think what this says more than anything else is that the apps being written for Android are being forced to rely on ad sales as their revenue model more than the apps being written for iPhone.
- Tichy 16y ago
  Wouldn't the stats here be for web sites rather than apps? Otherwise the metric "web traffic" wouldn't make much sense?
  - javery 16y ago
    It's tough to tell what they are really reporting here since I don't see it in the original AdMob report. If it's just web traffic then it is fairly useless to look at AdMob's numbers when there are much better sources out there. AdMob represents a whopping 18k websites of the 100M or so out there.
ecq 16y ago
This just means Android users have crappier user experience than iPhone users. More ads = crappy user experience
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
tvon 16y ago
Odd to remove the "Admob: " prefix in the headline, it's very important to the story.
nessence 16y ago
The stats are for "AD" content, not Web Traffic. I would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all. To reiterate, this statistic has nothing to do with web traffic. Original release: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100427005564&newsLang=en http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmV...
- jrockway 16y ago
  I would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all. I can't think of any ad-supported Android apps. (I have a lot of apps, and none of them have ads.)
  - mtw 16y ago
    ... and I can't think of any iPhone app using AdMob
    - Terretta 16y ago
      From mine, HeyWay and AccuWeather use AdMob, while Instapaper Free uses "The Deck"
  - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    Really? There are tons of them. Some of the AdMob supported apps on my phone at the moment include: * Movies (Flixster) * Load Monitor * MixZing * Virtual Beer * BlueTooth File Transfer * Carr Matey * Aldiko * Camera Magic * VG Classics Board * Dolphin Browser The Hacker News Reader app is also ad supported, although I think they're using a different ad network.
- gill_bates 16y ago
  > would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all Always interesting when people refute metrics with hand waving. "I would estimate" is a good sign that you shouldn't. AdMob isn't secret about their metric methodology. http://metrics.admob.com/ http://metrics.admob.com/ It is overwhelmingly driven by mobile web sites (which, humorously, usually call themselves "iPhone versions"), which I think is pretty fair to use as a comparison point.
jsz0 16y ago
Probably worth mentioning few paid apps display ads. As such it seems like paid apps would be excluded from this sampling for both iPhone & Android. There's definitely some value in the trends but that's about it.
javery 16y ago
Link to the full report form AdMob - much better reading than the TC articles. http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/march-2010-mobile-metrics-report/ http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/march-2010-mobile-metrics-r...
not_an_alien 16y ago
It's Admob ad traffic, not "web traffic". Very important distinction. Still, hooray for Android! This is just the first of many passes Android will do in the future.
- fromedome 16y ago
  Exactly. My article here explaining the difference: http://www.businessinsider.com/no-android-did-not-just-pass-iphone-web-traffic-in-the-us-2010-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/no-android-did-not-just-pass-...
- dminor 16y ago
  Our analytics data has US iPhone visits at 5x Android, so there is quite a way to go. I think as long as iPhone remains exclusively at AT&T it will happen eventually.
  - ja27 16y ago
    For the last month, my most mobile-friendly site is about 8.2% iPhoo, 1.6% Android, 0.9% Blackberry and 0.03% Palm (tied with SunOS and Playstation 3). Now, that's not a mobile site, but it's the one I have that gets the most mobile users.
chc 16y ago
The only number I want to see from Android is app sales. Until then, it will always be second banana because nobody develops for a platform just because its users see a lot of AdMob ads.
- usaar333 16y ago
  Unless of course you plan to make a free, ad-supported product.
ja2ke 16y ago
"Google ad service sees more traffic on Google device." AdMob wasn't always Google but they are now. "iAd traffic surges on iPhone OS devices! Android left in the dust!"

84 points by andr 16y ago

It would be a wee bit more accurate to say that Android phones fetched more ads on the AdMob network (which is owned by Google) than the iPhone did.

glhaynes 16y ago
As someone who doesn't know much about the ad business nor Android phones: do we expect that most of those ad requests came from Android browsers or from Android apps? Do iPhone apps often use AdMob ads?
papachito 16y ago
AdMob is still not owned by Google for now.
eli 16y ago
No one's claiming it to be a perfect sample of all traffic on the web, but that doesn't make it worthless. And I really don't think Google is juking the stats.

progr 16y ago

1. Admob is Google. 2. This is AD traffic. 3. != news

theBobMcCormick 16y ago
Given how many are predicting that the mobile web is a key component, if not the dominant component of the future of the web itself, and further given how many HN readers are running, or would like run some kind of web-focused startup. I don't see how this can NOT be HN relevant news. Regardless of what your personal preferences are for one mobile platform vs another, the increased competition among the leading mobile platforms is driving down prices and driving up innovation in the mobile market. All of which is driving greater penetration of web-capable smartphone vs plain old "feature phones". All of which is likely to make the "mobile web" and important part of being competitive in any web-based venture. Or at least, that's my perspective. :-)

IgorPartola 16y ago

My prediction is that we will be in the same situation with iPhone vs Andriod that we are now with Mac vs Windows in 5-7 years. Andriod will be the cheaper but less polished product sold to the masses, while the iPhone will be a more upscale, more expensive product for the people with discriminating taste. Right now there is a lot of innovation going on in the mobile market, but the reality is that soon some features will become standard or even (gasp!) interoperable. At that point rapid "breadth-first" innovation will stop and we'll be looking at a competition of who has the nicer screen or longer battery life or faster processor, etc., and not at all at how apps are distributed, or multitasking is done. P.S.: In 100 years works like "cell phone" and "app" will be SAT words : ).

enjo 16y ago
The gap in usability between Android devices and the iPhone is pretty small. With Sense from HTC, it's even smaller. I've been lucky enough to get to test-drive the HTC Incredible and it's most certainly on par with anything the iPhone currently offers. Google is pushing Android in the right direction at a really fast clip. I absolutely think Android will dominate in terms of market-share in the next two years (unless Apple starts loosening control over the iPhone). I think that issues like how applications are distributed and those particulars over multi-tasking (Android still has an entire class of Apps that won't run on iPhone OS 4.0) are going to continue to play a big role in the competitive environment for years to come. I just don't see Apple coming off of it's hard line position on these things. In the end I think Android wins because it simply opens the door for more innovation from a much larger group of smart people. It enables broader categories of application development. At the same time the shotgun strategy phone development is a proven one. Just look at Series 60 or even windows PC's for a roadmap.
- IgorPartola 16y ago
  I think Apple will have to loosen its grip the same way it had to do it for their desktop/laptop offerings. They used to offer really cools stuff but then the cost of not having them be able to talk to the beige boxes became too high. Also you are comparing HTC Incredible to 3G/3GS. I guess we'll see if the 4G iPhone is actually another step above everybody else.

AndrewWarner 16y ago

I don't see how this can be true. iPhone far outsells Android, no?

IgorPartola 16y ago
Sales are not the same as usage. Also see this: http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005344/android-unit-sales-catching-iphones/ http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005344/android-unit-sa...
smokinn 16y ago
I don't see how this is surprising. iPhone is a single device. There are many Android phones with many more to come. I would be surprised if any one device (say, Motorola's Droid for example) surpassed the iPhone but the Android OS as a whole? Not surprised.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
The biggest flaw with the numbers is that it doesn't include iPod Touch or iPad traffic, as they are not smartphones. A second issue is that, because it is US numbers, there is only one carrier with iPhones, which will limit their numbers (presumably in exchange for a big bag of cash).
- abstractbill 16y ago
  The biggest flaw with the numbers is that it doesn't include iPod Touch or iPad traffic, as they are not smartphones. Why is that a flaw? Why should the numbers include those devices?
  - czhiddy 16y ago
    > Why is that a flaw? Why should the numbers include those devices? My guess is that he's trying to compare OS vs OS, as opposed to OS vs device. Do these #s include traffic from Android tablets or MIDs? (Are there even any available for purchase at the moment?)
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago

eli 16y ago

Placing AdMob Metrics in Context: http://metrics.admob.com/2009/10/placing-admob-metrics-in-context/ http://metrics.admob.com/2009/10/placing-admob-metrics-in-co...

jbarciauskas 16y ago

Please forgive the metacomment, but god TechCrunch is terrible, I've never been so frustrated reading a blog 1) What's with the unreadable, unlinked graphs? I can barely make them out 2) I tried to go to the source by clicking the "released" link, which took me to... another TechCrunch article! 3) All the other links in the article are to other TechCrunch articles too! How's that for sourcing... 4) I looked all over for a Source: link at the bottom, like Engadget and virtually every other news aggregator blog out there has, but unless I'm blind, no dice.

axod 16y ago
5) When I copy and paste a line from their article, they add "Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/admob-android-passes-iphone-web-traffic-in-u-s/#ixzz0mK83QfoW http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/admob-android-passes-iphone.... IMHO That's just lame.
- tvon 16y ago
  Especially if you are trying to address specific points from the article on your comments on their site (or anywhere else).
- dpritchett 16y ago
  You can thank Tynt for that - and it's not just used by TechCrunch. The easiest way to opt out is to block tcr.tynt.com in your hosts/adblock/privoxy settings. Offending file: http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js
- glhaynes 16y ago
  One wonders what percentage of the time that gets manually edited out right after pasting. 95%+?

javery 16y ago

Of all the apps I use on a daily basis I can think of only one that has AdMob ads running. I think what this says more than anything else is that the apps being written for Android are being forced to rely on ad sales as their revenue model more than the apps being written for iPhone.

Tichy 16y ago
Wouldn't the stats here be for web sites rather than apps? Otherwise the metric "web traffic" wouldn't make much sense?
- javery 16y ago
  It's tough to tell what they are really reporting here since I don't see it in the original AdMob report. If it's just web traffic then it is fairly useless to look at AdMob's numbers when there are much better sources out there. AdMob represents a whopping 18k websites of the 100M or so out there.

ecq 16y ago

This just means Android users have crappier user experience than iPhone users. More ads = crappy user experience

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

tvon 16y ago

Odd to remove the "Admob: " prefix in the headline, it's very important to the story.

nessence 16y ago

The stats are for "AD" content, not Web Traffic. I would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all. To reiterate, this statistic has nothing to do with web traffic. Original release: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100427005564&newsLang=en http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmV...

jrockway 16y ago
I would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all. I can't think of any ad-supported Android apps. (I have a lot of apps, and none of them have ads.)
- mtw 16y ago
  ... and I can't think of any iPhone app using AdMob
  - Terretta 16y ago
    From mine, HeyWay and AccuWeather use AdMob, while Instapaper Free uses "The Deck"
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Really? There are tons of them. Some of the AdMob supported apps on my phone at the moment include: * Movies (Flixster) * Load Monitor * MixZing * Virtual Beer * BlueTooth File Transfer * Carr Matey * Aldiko * Camera Magic * VG Classics Board * Dolphin Browser The Hacker News Reader app is also ad supported, although I think they're using a different ad network.
gill_bates 16y ago
> would estimate Android has more ad-supported applications so I'm not surprised at all Always interesting when people refute metrics with hand waving. "I would estimate" is a good sign that you shouldn't. AdMob isn't secret about their metric methodology. http://metrics.admob.com/ http://metrics.admob.com/ It is overwhelmingly driven by mobile web sites (which, humorously, usually call themselves "iPhone versions"), which I think is pretty fair to use as a comparison point.

jsz0 16y ago

Probably worth mentioning few paid apps display ads. As such it seems like paid apps would be excluded from this sampling for both iPhone & Android. There's definitely some value in the trends but that's about it.

javery 16y ago

Link to the full report form AdMob - much better reading than the TC articles. http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/march-2010-mobile-metrics-report/ http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/march-2010-mobile-metrics-r...

not_an_alien 16y ago

It's Admob ad traffic, not "web traffic". Very important distinction. Still, hooray for Android! This is just the first of many passes Android will do in the future.

fromedome 16y ago
Exactly. My article here explaining the difference: http://www.businessinsider.com/no-android-did-not-just-pass-iphone-web-traffic-in-the-us-2010-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/no-android-did-not-just-pass-...
dminor 16y ago
Our analytics data has US iPhone visits at 5x Android, so there is quite a way to go. I think as long as iPhone remains exclusively at AT&T it will happen eventually.
- ja27 16y ago
  For the last month, my most mobile-friendly site is about 8.2% iPhoo, 1.6% Android, 0.9% Blackberry and 0.03% Palm (tied with SunOS and Playstation 3). Now, that's not a mobile site, but it's the one I have that gets the most mobile users.

chc 16y ago

The only number I want to see from Android is app sales. Until then, it will always be second banana because nobody develops for a platform just because its users see a lot of AdMob ads.

usaar333 16y ago
Unless of course you plan to make a free, ad-supported product.

ja2ke 16y ago

"Google ad service sees more traffic on Google device." AdMob wasn't always Google but they are now. "iAd traffic surges on iPhone OS devices! Android left in the dust!"