Tablet Growth Changing Ad Market

Non-phone mobile devices, especially tablets, accounted for 20 percent of all mobile advertising impressions on the Millennial Media platform during the first quarter of 2012, compared to 15 percent in the first quarter of 2011, showing the growing importance of tablets in the portable device universe and mobile advertising business.

Android remained the top overall operating system on the Millennial Media platform in Q1 2012, with a 49 percent share of impressions, and Apple remained the leading individual mobile device manufacturer, Millennial Media says.

The Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire were the top tablets in the first quarter of 2012, and all three were among the top 20 mobile devices.



Though the common observation is that tablets are displacing PCs for content consumption, tablets also are becoming a more-important platform for mobile content consumption as well.


IDC has forecast 2015 sales of 535 million PCs. That would imply tablet shipments about 60 percent of the PC level, heavily weighted towards developing regions of the world, the Guardian reports.


Apple will have just under 50 percent of the market of 326 million devices by about 2015, Gartner says. The Gartner forecast suggests tablet sales to end users will total 118.9 million units in 2012, a 98 percent increase from 2011 sales of 60 million units.

Apple's iOS continues to be the dominant media tablet operating system, as it is projected to account for 61.4 percent of worldwide media tablet sales to end users in 2012. Despite the arrival of Microsoft-based devices to this market, and the expected international rollout of the Kindle Fire, Apple will continue to be the market leader through the forecast period, Gartner argues.