“Today we released the Mobile Metrics report with August data,” Mike Fyall writes for AdMob. “For those new to the report, the AdMob Mobile Metrics report is a reflection of the data flowing through our network each month. The statistics do not represent handset sales or unique devices in the market, rather they represent the relative mobile usage we see from the sites and apps in our network. This means that devices with heavy mobile usage (like the iPhone) have higher share than other devices.”
Fyall reports, “For this month’s feature, we’ve published the top devices and smartphones for each region as well as share of usage. Below is a chart showing how the share of operating systems has changed in the last six months.”
• Worldwide iPhone OS marketshare has increased from 33 to 40 percent in the last 6 months, with substantial share in all regions except for Asia and Africa. Please see our June report for more information on the geographic distribution of our iPhone users.
• As we have noted in previous reports, iPhone and Android continue to gain share at the expense of the legacy platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile.
• Although its share of usage has been declining, Nokia handsets still dominate the top smartphones lists in all regions outside North America. Nokia’s new touchscreen devices – the N97 and XpressMusic – are both gaining traction and were the number 4 and 5 smartphones in Western Europe.
• Android continues its strong growth in both North America and Europe. Ad requests from Android devices grew 17% month over month in August, following a 50% increase in July. Given the new devices launching in Q4, it could be a huge holiday season for the Android platform.
• Phone represented 50 percent of US smartphone usage in AdMob’s network in August 2009, followed by RIM and Android devices at 14 and 13 percent, respectively.
Fyall reports, “Our worldwide and regional statistics are influenced by the location of the traffic in our network, so keep that in mind as you interpret the data. Our top 10 countries by traffic are listed in page 12 of the report, along with traffic breakdown by region, to help inform your analysis.”
Full report (.pdf) here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t worry, Microsoft, it’s all just a “rounding error.” 
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