Android phones could still alter the iPhone lead

Te sheer number of new Android phones available brings about a change in the trend, even though the iPhone continues to hold its lead over Android devices and, according to a monthly report from AdMob, this could potentially be last of its kind.

AdMob, now acquired by Google, released its monthly report on smartphone and operating system based on usage of its ad network, yesterday. It is the first report following its recent acquisition by Google, according to a blog post by the company.

According to a representative identified as "Mark F" in the official blog post, "We plan to continue sharing data that will help everyone in the industry, but will take a break from issuing the Mobile Metrics Report while we consider how to re-invent the report to make it more useful and relevant."

Analysts say besides the change in ownership that could impact the policy of releasing monthly data, AdMob may also be unable to collect data about iPhones thanks to Apple changing its policy to prevent companies that are not independent and whose primary business is not serving mobile ads from collecting iPhone user data. The change will likely prevent iPhone developers from using AdMob ads in their applications.

However, for now, AdMob has released data on network usage for the month of May. It found that the ratio of iPhones to Android devices in the US was 2 to 1, while worldwide it was 3.5 to 1, which was the same as the previous month.

Both operating systems saw additions to their users in May. Worldwide, 12.7 million Android devices accessed AdMob's network and 29.3 million iPhones used the network, which compares to 11.6 million Android devices and 27.4 iPhones in April.