80% of Mobile Video Views Happen on Apple Devices
Mobile video is still a small part of overall online viewing, but it's a part that Apple dominates, according to a new report by video monetization startup FreeWheel. In its Q1 2011 Video Monetization Report, FreeWheel said the vast majority …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a continuation of a pattern GigaOM's corpus has tracked since 2009, when a report put the iPhone at two-thirds of mobile web usage. Two years on, FreeWheel's Q1 2011 Video Monetization Report shows the same skew in a higher-bandwidth category: 80% of mobile video views land on Apple hardware.
First-order effects
- Publishers and advertisers working with monetization platforms like FreeWheel face a de facto iOS-first market: ad formats and delivery must be built for Apple devices first because that is where four out of five mobile video impressions occur.
Second-order effects
- Rival device ecosystems have to close the video-viewing gap or accept thinner mobile ad inventory; the more brand budgets follow the 80% figure, the harder it becomes for Android handset makers and carriers to price their video audience competitively.
Third-order effects
- If mobile video grows from its still-small base along this same skew, Apple's control of the premium mobile viewing audience compounds its platform advantage already visible in the App Store's 500,000-app milestone — turning device share into durable media-distribution power.
The trend: Mobile video is following the path mobile web browsing took in 2009, consolidating around Apple devices and giving the company an early lock on the premium end of mobile advertising.