May 26th 2010

Google and its Android partners can thank customers in North America for the hot growth of smartphones sporting the mobile operating system.
Among all the Android devices owned around the world, 75 percent of them are in North America, according to AdMob's April Mobile Metrics Report, released Wednesday. That's followed by 11 percent owned in Western Europe and 12 percent in Asia. In contrast, 49 percent of devices running Apple's iPhone OS are in North America, with 28 percent owned in Western Europe and 14 percent in Asia.
Though consumer demand for Android has been climbing, the iPhone still commands the stronger market share, according to the April report. In the United States, iPhone OS devices held a 2-to-1 ownership ratio over Android OS devices last month; worldwide that ratio came in at 3.5 to 1. But of course, the iPhone OS has been around longer than Android.
Looking at hard numbers, AdMob tracked 8.7 million unique Android devices in the United States on its network in April, compared with 10.7 million iPhones. Factoring in the iPod Touch and iPad boosted the number of Apple devices in the U.S. to 18.3 million. Worldwide, AdMob found 11.6 million Android devices, 27.4 million iPhones, and 40.8 million total devices running the iPhone OS on its network last month.