Google’s mobile ad gambit 

	


                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.