iPod touch is still a better vehicle for ads than iPad, says report

Mobile advertising company Millennial Media on Wednesday released a report that says MP3 players and gaming devices are still better vehicles for delivering in-app mobile ads than tablets such as the iPad, even though tablets have exploded in popularity over the last year.

It's Millennial's first Mobile Mix Report that counts mobile ad impressions on non-phone devices, and it appears that non-smartphone app consumption is still completely dominated by the iPod touch. 70% of impressions in the "connected devices" category (which itself makes up 16% of the total impressions) came from Mobile Gaming Devices/MP3 Players, which includes the iPod touch and Sony PSP, among other things.

Tablets such as iPad, Xoom, and Galaxy Tab made up a 29% portion of that 16% chunk, or just 4.6% of the total.

Though Millennial didn't break down this figure in its free report and explicitly say the iPod touch led the category, it does provide figures that allow us to safely come to that conclusion.

First, it says that Apple is the top manufacturer across all classes of device, with 30.84% of all impressions, and iPhone was the dominant device, drawing 16.53% of the total market's ad impressions.

Second, it says that connected devices (iPod/iPad category) made up 16% of all impressions and that smartphones made up 67%.

Therefore, if 30.84% of all impressions came from Apple devices. and 16.53% of that was the iPhone, that means 14.31% of the total market was covered by iPod touch and iPad, and the total market including iPad, iPod, and all its competitors makes up only 16% of the total market, that leaves only 1.69% of the total non-smartphone app market to everyone non-Apple.

Millennial includes some supplementary data to help this conclusion along, including the fact that most impressions (31% of total) are done over Wi-Fi, and most (60% of total) are done on a touchscreen-only device.