InMobi: Android & iOS Eat Away At RIM’s Share In North America; Globally, Nokia Devices Dominate

Independent mobile ad network InMobi released its Q1 2012 Ad Data report for North America this morning, covering the mobile ad landscape for the first part of the year. Not surprisingly, the report found the top two mobile operating systems were, again, iOS and Android, each with a sizeable chunk of market share and growing. RIM, meanwhile, was still clinging to spot #3, but has dropped 4.6% since Q1 2011, the report found, going from a 11.9% share to 7.3%. this past quarter.

InMobi’s report is not a full picture of the mobile landscape, of course – it’s only a slice of it, pulled from data sourced by ad impressions on its network. Today, the company reaches 578 million consumers in over 165 countries, serving more than 93.4 billion ad impressions each month.

In the new report for North America, InMobi found that Apple’s iOS platform has maintained its lead over Android for the third consecutive month, with total iOS impression share at 37% versus Android’s 34%. However, even though InMobi refers to iOS as “iPhone OS” in its findings (but not its graphics…), it appears they’re also counting iPads and iPod Touches when determining the platform’s totals.

When this so-called “iPhone OS” is broken down, InMobi says the iPhone itself has 19.7% market share, the iPod 12.2% and the iPad 4.9%. Given Android’s fairly small tablet footprint, an apples to apples comparison (groan, sorry) of mobile phone platforms alone would put Android phones ahead if you were only looking at mobile handsets. InMobi did not, so you can claim this data is skewed in Apple’s favor, if you choose.

Anne Frisbie, InMobi’s VP and Managing Director for North America, says that Apple’s position in this market has a lot to do with the new iPad. “Apple maintained its lead over Android and further increased its share of impressions and handset dominance; the new iPad certainly helped its overall position,” she says. “However, we know that fierce competition is created across the operating systems when new devices enter the market, and this time last year Android surpassed iOS globally.”

In other words, things can still change.

But in terms of ad impressions (if not device type), iOS leads globally, too. InMobi found Apple devices claiming the top three positions at a combined 18% global market share.

Globally, however, Nokia devices combined have the highest number of impressions at 35%. This grouping didn’t just include Symbian phones, though – it also included Windows Phone as well as Nokia feature phones that have Internet access.

Meanwhile, as iOS reigned in North America, in the U.K. specifically, Apple’s share was even larger, with 45% of all ad impressions, compared with Google’s Android at 26% and RIM at 16%.

But in all of Europe combined, Google’s Android was most popular, with 36% of all impressions versus Apple’s 28% and RIM’s 13%.