Google’s mobile ads are becoming more location-aware. Today, Google is introducing mobile display ads for both the iPhone and Android phones which can be geo-targeted. Advertisers will be able to check a “location extension for display” box and their ads will become geo-enabled when viewed in mobile browsers or apps.  A little double-arrow will open up the ad and show the business pinned on map with two big blue buttons to get directions or call the business.  Google will only charge for calls or clicks.

Google already offers so-called “location extension” ads for mobile search, but this is the first time it is expanding the concept to mobile display ads.  Google says that mobile ads that offer a location generally see an average 8 percent increase in click-through rates over plain-vanilla mobile ads, and click-to-call mobile ads see a 6 percent increase in clicks.

Akbank ilginç bir atak yaparak daha evvel iPhone için çıkarttığı Yatırımcı uygulamasının bu sefer iPad versiyonunu yayınladı. Bu sayede de iPad için uygulama geliştiren ilk finans şirketi oldu. (Diğer sektörlerden de iPad için uygulama geliştirenlerin sayısı çok çok az.)

Just the Highlights

Disclosure out of the way, here are the latest findings, highlights first:

• 92 countries generated more than 10 million request in May 2010, up from 27 countries in May 2008
• Nokia leads in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe
• Apple leads in North America, Oceania and Western Europe
• In May 2010, smartphones generated 46% of traffic in the AdMob network, up from 22% 2 years ago
• 24% of May's traffic was via Wi-Fi
• Mobile Internet Devices (including the iPad, PSP and iPod Touch) consistently have accounted for 10% of traffic over the past year
• 57% of Apple devices in AdMob's network are outside the U.S.
• Traffic from the Android platform has grown 29% month-over-month since May 2009
• iOS and Android users spend 79 minutes per day using apps
• iOS and Android users download about 9 apps per month

Android Gains Thanks to New Devices

The introduction of numerous Android-based phones has allowed the mobile OS's market share to increase dramatically over the past year, AdMob finds. But what's most interesting is seeing what those gains look like, graphed out.

In this chart, for example, you can see a sharp increase in Android's market share while Apple's iOS market share drops. In February, Apple appears to have a 50% share, but by May, it's down to 40% worldwide.

Amazon just updated the content for the Kindle app running on Apple gear that gives a few books an inject of multimedia. For example, Rich Steves' London Kindle Edition with audio/video features walking tours with Rich doing the narration while Rose's Heavenly Cakes features video tips for... you guessed it, making delicious cake. It's hard to tell if the move is a first step in a wholesale Kindle change or just a toe in the water to gauge interest.

Google's mobile OS has climbed rapidly over the prior months, having gone from around 5% in January 2009 to 20% in May 2010, stealing away market share from other mobile OS's, most notably Apple's, whose iOS dropped from 75% share to 59% during that same time frame.

Also of note, these numbers were calculated prior to the EVO's launch, the highly anticipated "4G" Android smartphone which sold out within days of its launch. Adding that into the fold, the next Quantcast report will likely offer even more gains for Android at iOS's expense.

While the specific applications vary from platform to platform, the most popular apps across smartphones were pretty consistent in this report: Maps, weather, Facebook and music all had strong showings.

Check out this chart, which breaks down the five most popular apps by smartphone OS:

Lies, damned lies and statistics: You can play games with numbers, and recently the game has been to show Android phones are beating the iPhone in the U.S. Now new data proves that in the rest of the world, Google's still chasing Apple.

The new figures come from Gartner as part of a bigger survey of global mobile phone use patterns. This has two headline figures that are news all by themselves: Globally the entire mobile market grew by 17% in the first quarter of 2010, a strong indicator that the world's economy is definitely on the mend. But the smartphone market grew even faster, from 13.6% of total sales in Q1 2009 to 17.3% in Q1 2010--a 27% growth rate, which is yet another sign that while the dumbphone still owns the market, the future is in smartphones.

The only way your ads can have any impact is if they convince people to stop buying Apple products. But that won’t happen either. The side-effect of making quality products is that people want them. They want them even in some cases if they don’t like you, or agree with certain actions. And the fact of the matter is that despite these ads, most people won’t have any idea what all of this is about — nor would they care if they did. They’ll just buy what they consider to be a quality product.

So that leaves your only real hope: the government (ugh). And you’re trying to make that happen. But again, that’s not going to work. While Apple may control a significant percentage of the mindshare in the market right now, they do not control a majority of the actual market share in computers or smart phones. They do in MP3 players, but that is a dying industry. As for the iPad, tablet computers are much too new of a category for the government to even think about regulating at this point.

So where does that leave you? Well, to be frank, shit out of luck.

On one hand, there’s an urge to feel bad for you. You really are getting screwed here. On the other hand, you really did it to yourselves.

When Apple first launched the iPhone in 2007, had there been a great, lightweight version of Flash for mobile devices, I bet that Apple would have almost been forced to use it. They offered it on their desktop browsers after all, and this new device was supposed to be putting the Internet in your pocket. It was no sure thing that this device would succeed at the time, and giving it every chance to (by including something like Flash) would have made sense. But there was no version of Flash ready that would run on the device (presumably without massive performance/battery hits). In fact, only now, three full years later, is a version of Flash running on mainstream mobile devices being shown off.

You gave Jobs three years worth of solid data (massive iPhone sales) to prove he didn’t need you. And now he’s using that knowledge in the iPad, the device which may or may not be the first step in the future of computing. And now others are rallying to his side because he grabbed the position of power.

Hahahah.. great article..

Google’s Android OS surpassed Apple in US smartphone market share during the first quarter of 2010. According to the NPD Group, Google now enjoys 28 percent of the smartphone market, earning the company the second-place spot behind Research in Motion (36 percent) and pushing Apple to third place (21 percent).

Chase’s app is basically a stretched-out version of its iPhone app. But the extra real estate does make it easier to accomplish tasks, such as sending a bill payment (right screenshot). But the biggest benefit of the iPad app initially is all the blog posts and news articles it will generate. 

Chase is betting big on the iPad platform, taking a reported six-figure sponsorship of the NY Times iPad app (see inset, click to enlarge). The bank really had no choice but to support that advertising expense with a banking app of its own. Chase launched its iPhone app in Dec. 2008.

Chase Bank’s native iPad app (5 May 2010)