Windows Phone 7 Ad Impressions Up 92%; iOS And Android Neck In Neck For App Revenue
Mobile ad network Millennial Media has released its monthly monthly mobile report for May, giving us a view into how each OS and manufacturer is performing on the mobile ad network.
Context & Ripple Effects
Six months after launch, Windows Phone 7 is still fighting the perception problem set by Windows Mobile outselling it in Q4 2010 — but the supply side keeps arguing the ramp is real: IDC said in December that the marketplace was ramping "faster than Android", and Distimo's November 2010 catalog survey showed pricing settling into place early. Millennial Media's May report adds an advertiser-side data point to that argument: a confirmed 92% month-over-month jump in WP7 ad impressions.
The second confirmed finding matters just as much for where developers allocate effort: iOS and Android are nearly tied on app revenue in Millennial's network data, which frames the two dominant platforms as economically interchangeable for most publishers rather than an iOS-first market.
First-order effects
- Windows Phone 7 developers and advertisers gain evidence the platform's inventory is scaling fast off its late-2010 base, making WP7 placements easier to justify alongside Android and iOS buys.
- Publishers reading the near-tie in iOS vs. Android app revenue have less reason to treat Android as a secondary port target.
Second-order effects
- RIM and other mid-tier smartphone platforms now compete for the same ad dollars against two networks-verified revenue leaders plus a fast-growing Microsoft entrant, squeezing their share of Millennial's monthly rankings.
- Microsoft can use the 92% figure in developer recruitment to counter the Q4 2010 sales narrative that had Windows Mobile beating its own successor.
Third-order effects
- If monthly ad-network reports keep serving as the de facto scorecard, platform competition shifts from unit shipments toward monetization-per-device metrics — rewarding ecosystems that convert attention into revenue regardless of handset count.
The trend: Mobile platform standing is increasingly adjudicated by ad-network dashboards like Millennial Media's monthly report, where impression growth and revenue parity carry more weight than quarterly handset sales.