After repeatedly being bashed by Apple, here some good news for RIM: mobile advertisers aren’t abandoning the platform, but actually taking a second look with dumb phone advertising rising, says one advertising network Wednesday.
In a surprising comeback for the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, mobile ads displayed on RIM devices grew 6 percent in May, as “feature phones” comprised 17 percent of the Smartphone, Feature Phone and Connected Devices mix in May measured by Millennial Media. A possible clue to the surprising finding: the BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Bold 2 ranked in the top five mobile phones served ads.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple lead for the 20th consecutive month with nearly 31 percent of the device market. Apple’s closest competitor, Samsung, came in No. 2 with 13.9 percent, according to the measurement firm. Additionally, ads displayed on iPads grew by nearly a third, registering a 29 percent increase from April.
However, for the glass-half-empty crowd, this morning’s report also held some concerns. The iOS lead over Android shrank somewhat, falling to 45 percent versus 43 percent in May, down from 50 percent versus Android’s 39 percent seen in April. Likewise, Android phones slightly increased its lead over the iPhone to 53 percent versus 27 percent in May, up from 53 percent versus 28 percent in April, according to the ad network.
Are dumbphones gaining in traction as users get sick of expensive, super-advanced handsets or move on to tablets for most of their mobile computing needs? Or is this just a weird little blip? Let us know what you think.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
8 responses to “iAd Is Losing Marketshare To Dumbphones”
there are 6b ppl in the world
it is only logical to know that the majority will own a “dumbphone”
which costs likes $50-$100
instead of the smartphone that costs $500
just like how more ppl will own Hondas than bmws
I have just dumped my dumbphone WinMobile combination for an iPhone. I have an iPad also. So I guess I dont fit into that consumer group.
Could be because they are going broke paying for 3G service like brownlee.
BlackBerry advertising is like advertising on LinkedIn. You get to the business decision makers so maybe thats why advertisers advertise on that.