The Short Names

Growing sales of iPhones and Android devices helped smartphones generate 48 percent of mobile web and app traffic on AdMob’s ad network in November, up from 30 percent a year ago, the company found. Rival ad net MillennialMedia found that iPhone/iPod Touch impressions grew by 42 percent in November – the largest monthly increase across that company’s network to date. The percentage of requests over WiFi in the U.S. also tripled in the past year, according to AdMob. In November 2008, only 8 percent of requests to AdMob in the US were over a WiFi network, compared to 24 percent in November.

While the growth of Apple’s mobile devices in the U.S. was rapid, Admob said it sees signs of a slowdown there and in Canada. About 50 percent of the unique iPhone and iPod touch devices that requested at least one ad from AdMob in November 2009 were located in the U.S. The UK, France, Canada, Germany were the next four biggest markets by unique users, in that order. In total, there were 23 countries in the AdMob network with requests from more than 100,000 unique iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Online mobile usage is also starting to match behavior on the PC-based internet more closely. In November, MillennialMedia saw average monthly pageviews per user rise from 106 to 113, as average session time increased from 4:46 to 5:02. The growth of rich media on its mobile network seems to be a bit slow, as those executions were up from 18 percent to 20 percent in November.