Android maintained its lead as the top smartphone operating system on Millennial Media’s mobile advertising network for the sixth month in a row, according to the latest report from the marketing firm.
Millennial’s Mobile Mix report for the month of May showed that Android’s share of impressions on the marketer’s ad network held steady over the previous month at 53 percent.
In terms of the most popular device on Millennial’s network, the iPhone maintained its long-term lead, staying in the top spot for the 20th straight month.
The report also found that ad impressions on Windows Phone 7 nearly doubled month-over-month, increasing 92 percent from April. However, Windows Phone 7 still holds just 1 percent of the market.
Research In Motion (RIM) enjoyed a boost from the BlackBerry Curve, which helped it expand the platform’s share of ad impressions to 17 percent in May, from 16 percent in April.
Apps for iOS continue to be more profitable than Android apps, but the gap narrowed considerably last month.
Apple apps accounted for 45 percent of ad revenue on Millennial’s network in May, down from 50 percent in April. Meanwhile, sales coming from Android apps accounted for 43 percent of ad revenue in May, up from its 39 percent in April.
“We expect Android to start to steal share from Apple as developers start to create more applications for the Android platform to take advantage of the high volume of customers who have shifted to Android devices,” Millennial Media wrote in its report.
Last month marked the first time Millennial Media included connected devices in its report. Mobile gaming devices and MP3 players comprised 70 percent of ad impressions in the connected device category, tablets represented 29 percent of impressions and gadgets like the Amazon Kindle, Nintendo Wii and connected televisions made up the remaining 1 percent.
“In the coming months, we expect to see the tablets category continue to grow due
to the rapid adoption of tablet devices,” Millennial said.
Millennial’s ad network covers more than 91 million wireless subscribers in the United States.
