With Tablets And iPods Added, Apple Takes 3 Of Top 4 Mobile Device Spots Ranked By Ad Impressions, Says Millennial

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.