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Jun. 30, 2009

Since Apple introduced the iPhone 3G almost a year ago, it has succeeded in creating a huge distinction between itself, and other smartphones available on the market.

However, it is exactly that distinction that has changed the wireless industry in a matter of less than one year as well. This is no small feat in a market as competitive as the mobile handset segment.

In AdMob’s latest monthly metrics report, it offers a fair idea of which handsets are the most popular on the mobile Internet.

As many had expected, the iPhone and iPod got the top two spots again in May, taking about 45 percent of total ad requests in the U.S. alone.

Third on the list is the Samsung R-450 smartphone, which accounts for almost 4.5 percent of ad requests. To put things in perspective, the Samsung R-450 is a messaging phone with a slide-out keyboard. It’s not even really a smartphone per se, by some definitions.

The HTC Dream (or the G1 as it is sometimes called) comes in at No. 5 on the list but accounts only for 2.2 percent of total requests, and is the next smartphone in AdMob’s lineup.

As some had predicted, Google's Android-based HTC Dream has a touch screen and its user interface has received better than average reviews.

In today's cut-throat wireless market, it’s normal to want to beat the industry leader, and some smarter-than-smart smartphone will do that, but it will successfully do it by building off the iPhone.

For now, all eyes are on the Palm Pre, which seems to be advancing the evolutionary line of the smartphone. Price point and available applications aside, the Pre has a strong fan base, an intuitive user interface and a neat touch screen.

To simply ignore the impact that the iPhone has had and will continue to have on the mobile handset industry would be very foolhardy in deed.

From the way wireless carriers manage their networks to mobile content distribution, the iPhone is setting some important industry standards that will last long after other devices have seen their day.

Other emerging smartphones that go up against the iPhone and its App Store are all going to be familiar stories.

There are still a lot of market players who seem to want to go at war about the handset market, but in the end, it’s going to be a matter of who can at least meet what’s become expected of a MID (mobile Internet device) as put forward by the iPhone.

The Palm Pre added multi-tasking to the smartphone, the HTC Dream delivers a compelling open-source operating system, but both look an awful lot like something that took a huge chunk of ad requests in the month of May alone.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: AdMob.