Advert adversaries
Apple's iAd has increased its US mobile advertising market share, seemingly at the expense of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! while independent rivals are also gaining ground too.
Research firm IDC told Businessweek that it expects Apple to control 21 percent of the market by the end of this year, while it predicts Google's will fall 6 percent from last year to 21 percent when combined with results from its newly purchased network AdMob. It also forecasted Microsoft will shed 3 percent to command 7 percent of the market this year.
There seems to be a scramble to buy up businesses and boost software to seize mobile more mobile advertising, which is expected to double in size and create a $500m market this year, according to IDC.
Apple only launched its iAd service this July and was keen to trumpet how many advertisers had already jumped on-board, committing $60 million to the platform for 2010, which Apple says is half the total amount forecast to be spent on mobile advertising in the US for the second half of this year.
The creation of iAd was spawned from Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless in January. The company reportedly had 9 percent of the market in 2009, according to IDC, which gave Apple a good base to start its mobile advert domination.
Some analysts think Apple's enthusiastic jump into the mobile advert arena is probably responsible for its rivals' market share slips. A spokesperson for Apple told Businessweek that the number of brands that have signed up to run ads on its network has doubled.
Meanwhile Google was keen to stress its success, telling the service it too was experiencing fast growth but the firm does not reveal full year mobile ad sales.
Jason Spero, director of US mobile, reportedly said: "If we are losing share, this market is growing faster than any one we've seen." Google is believed to have upped its investment in mobile advertising and is tipped to unveil new features in 2011.
Meanwhile, IDC estimated that Yahoo's mobile ad marekt share has declined 3 percent to 9 percent this year, while Nokia now commands just 2 percent of the market, falling 3 percent since last year.
Scott Lahde, a spokesman for Yahoo! told the news service: "We are confident in our strategy and focus moving forward," while Microsoft and Nokia did not comment.
However, while many CEOs would be chuffed with growth, Apple's head honcho, Steve Jobs had reportedly hoped iAd would grow even faster. He apparently said iAd would grab almost half of all mobile ad spending in the second half of 2010, at Apple's developers conference in June.
Karsten Weide, an analyst for IDC told Businessweek that iAd would need to offer extra service for advertisers to target specific audiences to grow faster.
Apple and Google are also believed to be facing extra competition from plucky smaller rivals. IDC reportedly predicted that Jumptag will command 13 percent of the lucrative market from 10 percent in 2009, while Millennial media could add 2 percent to grab 11 percent of the market this year.
