It’s still very early days for the “Googlephone”, but there are already signs that the strategy is working.
Google’s aim was to create a mobile platform for its services and, eventually, to drive more advertising. Data from Admob (which serves up 8bn mobile adverts a month and so has as good a view as anyone of where those ads are going) show the plan is unfolding on schedule.
The HTC Dream – the first Google phone, launched by T-Mobile late last year – first appeared in March on Admob’s list of top-20 handsets, based on the volume of advertising they consume. By last month, it had risen all the way to the number six slot.
The Dream’s 1.5 per cent market share of all mobile ads may sound small. But consider this: the two handsets immediately above it, the Motorola RAZR and Nokia’s N70, have far more users, but each only accounts for 1.8 per cent of mobile advertising.
And this is only the beginning. The second Googlephone – the HTC Magic – has received much better reviews and should fair better than the Dream. With a collection of Android-powered phones due out from other manufacturers before the end of the year, Google looks to have made it past the first rung of the ladder.
Of course, Apple will take some catching. In April, it supplanted Nokia as the company whose handsets display the most mobile adverters. The iPhone and iPod now carry 30 per cent of all mobile commercial messages.
