Millennial: iOS and RIM gain over Android, Kindle Fire beats iPad in adoption rate

9to5 Staff | Dec 20 2011 - 4:22 am PT

Analytics firm Millennial Media, the second-largest mobile advertising platform behind Google, on Tuesday, released its monthly Mobile Mix report for November. Similar to their October survey that saw Android’s growth slowing (and iOS gaining). Compared to the summer period for November, both Apple’s and Research in Motion’s respective platform grew at the expense of Google. Specifically, Android went from 56 percent ad requests in October to 50 percent in November.

Meanwhile, iOS went from 28 percent ad requests in October to 30 percent in November. The BlackBerry platform recorded the biggest gain of all mobile platforms, increasing its share of ad requests from 13 percent in October to 17 percent in November. Because both iOS and BlackBerry grew their combined ad impressions by six percentage points, the same amount Android lost in the period, it is safe to assume that Apple and Research In Motion gained traction at the expense of Google’s mobile platform.

The findings are in stark contrast to the seemingly unstoppable Android growth that appears to have slowed down during the crucial holiday sales period. Android in November doubled iOS in ad impressions, but last month – its respective share changed to 50 percent for Android versus 30 percent for iOS. The Kindle Fire vs. iPad adoption figures and more info graphic charts are available below.

As for the Kindle Fire, Millennial reported that ad requests coming from Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet that launched mid-November have grown at an average daily rate of 19 percent. That is enough to slightly outpace the iPad’s April 2010 launch. Millennial noted it is seeing a monthly run rate of hundreds of millions of ad impressions on the Kindle Fire. As for individual devices and device vendors, Apple’s iPhone remains the top handset with a 13.54 percent share of ad impressions in November (up from 12.53-percent in October), followed by the BlackBerry Curve at 5.87-percent, Motorola’s Droid X at 5.27-percent, HTC’s EVO 4G at 3.18-percent and LG’s Optimus 3.08-percent. Apple also leads the list of the top phone vendors with a 25.66-percent share of devices (up from 23.50 percent in October), accounting for 1 in 4 handsets in November. Samsung went from 17.24-percent in October to 17.47 percent in November, enough to reclaim the No.2 spot. HTC lost a significant share and slid to the fourth-place, going from 18.11-percent in October to 12.64-percent in November, while Research In Motion beat the Taiwanese company for the third spot on the 14.57-percent share (just 10.86 percent in October).

Note that Millennial Media bases its survey on tracking ad requests in mobile apps that incorporate its advertising platform, so the results may not paint a representative picture of the whole market. Still, the numbers can be interpreted as an accurate guidance of current market trends.