InMobi Set To Gain From Apple-Google Mobile Warfare

Apple recently released a new developer licensing agreement permitting only “independent” ad serving companies to serve ads on their iPhone (and iPad) platforms, thus making sure that Google’s new baby – the recently acquired AdMob – cannot do so. AdMob fails to meet Apple’s criteria as it is not “independent” because its parent, Google, “develops and distributes mobile devices and operating systems”.

While AdMob is fuming over this new agreement, InMobi (whom we met two weeks ago at ad:tech 2010) with its independent network status, stands to gain immensely from the absence of AdMob on the iPhone platform.

InMobi is now one of the largest mobile independent mobile networks in the world. The network has established its strongholds in the APAC region (where it first started out) and has managed to gain a strong presence in Africa and Western Europe since their launch there. InMobi now aims for deeper penetration into the US market which is currently dominated by entrenched players such as AdMob (Google owned) and relative newcomers like Apple’s iAd and Quattro Wireless.

However despite the strong competition, InMobi managed to increase its number of ad impressions from 250 million in January (when its soft launch took place) to 2 BILLION in June. (This represents an 8 time increase in the number of impressions within a 6 month period!)

Read our interview with Mr. Emmanuel Allix, VP and MD (APAC) of InMobi to find out how they did it.

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Taking Advantage Of AdMob’s Absence On The iPhone Platform

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While the (temporary?) absence of AdMob on the iPhone platforms is advantageous for all independent networks, they must move fast in order to grab market share quickly. On this note, it seems as though InMobi has all their bases covered in order take advantage of this situation.

InMobi recently launched City Targeting, a value added service, in March 2010. This programme enables advertisers to segment their audience according to the cities/regions which they reside in. Currently, the program offers advetisers targeted access to over 15,000 regions and cites across 6 key countries – UK, France, Indonesia, S. Africa, US and India.

Moreover, City Targeting enables advertisers to send messages optimized for the iPhone platform. This includes adding creative touches to their messages and this includes video, search and local calls-to-action served in an iPhone-optimized, 320×48 banner.

As such, the well timed launched of their City Targeting program which in part caters specfically to iPhone users, InMobi is therefore in a very good position to take advantage of the absence of Google-run Admob on the iPhone platform. Globally, there are 11.6 million Andriod OS devices but the number of iPhone OS devices (inclusive of iPhones, iPads and iTouches) more than triples this at 40.8 million devices. Specifically in the US market, this figures at 8.7 million Andriod OS devices and 18.3 million iPhone OS devices. This therefore means that by enjoying access to the iPhone OS, InMobi may be able to even potentially overtake Admob which has gained a stronghold in the developed markets where it first started.

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Ability To Move Quickly With Self Serving Platform

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Additionally, InMobi’s self serving platform and sales force teams is crucial in helping the company expand their network. The self serving platform enables InMobi to rapidly and cost efficiently gain a foothold in the market by enabling publishers and advertisers to sign up and get started immediately. Aforementioned statistics of their rapid increase in impressions also evidence this deduction.

While we do not know how FTC will rule on the new developer agreements issued by Apple, smart independent networks will make full use of this temporary absence of AdMob’s giant presence on the platform to quickly increase their market share now.

Image Credit: alicepopkorn

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