A survey conducted recently by Google-owned AdMob found that tablets are eating into the quality time U.S. consumers spend with their desktop and laptop PCs — and the majority of tablet owners might not use their devices the way many pundits believe. A survey of 1,430 tablet owners in the U.S. conducted March of this year suggests that the most popular use for tablets at this point could be gaming. An overwhelming 84% of respondents said they use their tablets for playing games of some type, while 78% said ...

Google’s mobile AdMob team has posted a YouTube video touting the advertising success of Rovio’s wildly popular  mobile game, Angry Birds. In the clip, Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s Mighty Eagle, says that his company prefers using the ad-supported model featured in the application’s Android version to the paid-application model seen in the iOS game. To date, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 30 million times — 5 million times for Android alone. However, the most impressive n...

What, you thought McDonald’s and Chuck Norris were the only two entities that could make claims of “billions and billions served”? Today, via a tweet, Google announced that its mobile advertising agency, AdMob, had eclipsed the 300 billion adverts-served mark; the company accomplished this in just under three years. We would like to extend our congratulations to Google on their success. With the proliferation of smartphones, we’re sure it will take AdMob far fewer than three years to...

Shortly after Apple announced that they would be easing developer restrictions for the iOS platform, Google published a statement giving their proverbial thumbs up. In a blog post, Google writes:Apple’s new terms will keep in-app advertising on the iPhone open to many different mobile ad competitors and enable advertising solutions that operate across a wide range of platforms. This is great news for everyone in the mobile community, as we believe that a competitive environment is the best way to drive i...

Google announced its second quarter 2010 earnings on Thursday, and the earnings conference call painted a rosy picture of the current state of Android. According to Google CFO Patrick Pichette, and Senior VP of Product management Jonathan Rosenberg, Android is currently not a huge resource investment for Google but promises a “formidable return” as the “entire ecosystem is exploding.” According to Rosenberg, the web browser is the most popular app on an Android device with search bein...

According to a new report, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have come to an agreement that the latter will open a formal investigation into Apple’s iPhone policies. The investigation will look into whether or not Apple’s prohibiting developers from using cross-compilers is anti-competitive. It is unclear whether or not the FTC will also look at Apple’s ban of Adobe Flash on iOS devices as well as section 3.3.9 of the iOS developers agreement which blocks Google̵...

Surprise! The U.S. government is once again going to throw Apple under the microscope and investi alleged anti-competitive practices, this time for the new language Apple is using in section 3.3.9 of its developers agreement which appears to be directed straight at Google’s AdMob. This information comes to us by way of The Financial Times. This would mark the second time that federal regulators have looked at Apple relating to mobile ads and one of many other preliminary investigations. It was just yes...

In a post on his blog this morning, AdMob founder Omar Hamoui lambasted Apple for anti-competitive behavior pertaining to the most recent changes to section 3.3.9 of the iOS developers agreement. According to Hamoui, if Apple should chose to enforce what is written in the agreement, Apple would be erecting “artificial barriers to competition” which “hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress.” While there is in reality very little that anyone can do ...

It comes as no surprise — since Steve Jobs hinted at it during D8 — that Apple has once again revised the controversial section 3.3.9 of its iOS developer agreement. Section 3.3.9 deals specifically with what App Store applications can and cannot do when it comes to the collection of user and device data. The new modifications seem to be more lenient towards independent ad agencies; allowing them to collect user data after obtaining explicit permission from Apple to do so. However, what they’...

Six months after it first put in a bid of $750 million, Google today formally completed its acquisition of mobile ad giant AdMob. This news comes one week after the FTC finally gave Google the go ahead after completing a lengthy investigation into the purchase. So what’s next for Google? Other than preparing for an all-out war against iAd, Google is working to bring its mobile ad team with the AdMob crew so that they can get straight to work on creative ideas. Said Google’s Susan Wojcicki “W...

According to AdMob’s April 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, the number of iPhone OS devices in the US outnumber the amount of Android devices by a ratio of 2:1. AdMob estimates that for all of the 8.7 million Android smartphones in the US, there are 10.7 million iPhones and 18.3 million iPads and iPod touches. Worldwide, AdMob reports that there are 11.6 million Android devices compared to 27.4 million iPhones and 13.4 million iPads and iPod touches. Perhaps the most interesting facet of AdMobs report is ju...

The Federal Trade Commission had been investigating Google’s bid to buy mobile advertising firm AdMob…that is until today. In an official statement, the FTC wrote, “after thoroughly reviewing the deal…it is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.” Apple’s decision to venture into the mobile advertising space (see iAd), seems to have helped Google, as the FTC explains: “As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s...

On the eve of I/O 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt made some pretty interesting comments to Reuters. First and foremost on his mind was AdMob, the mobile advertising giant that Google has been trying to acquire since November of last year. The $750 million deal is currently on hold as the FTC looks into whether or not the sale could negatively impact developers that rely on mobile ad revenue. Although confident the deal will eventually be given the thumbs up, Schmidt vowed that his company would “fight ver...

According to mobile ad firm Smaato, U.S.-based Symbian users are 2.7 times more likely to click on a mobile ad than their iPhone OS using countrymen. The findings, based on 6 billion ads served up by 40 ad companies in the month of April, are quite puzzling when considering the infinitesimally small share of the U.S. smartphone market Symbian currently occupies. But GigaOm’s Kevin Tofel has what sounds like a very reasonable explanation for the stats: “Symbian is a more mature operating system in...