In Mobile Advertising, Does Size Matter?

It?s the motion in the ocean that counts, right? Wrong. Well, at least that?s how it looks when it comes to mobile advertising. (Look out, inneractive infographic below!) If you take Google at its word, then 2011 has been the year of the tablet. Or in their words, this year tablets ?went mainstream?. Sure, Google would say that, as the creator of a rapidly-propagating mobile OS, right? Well, with total number of tablets sold expected to get close to 60 million by the end of the year, I think we may be able to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Of course, when it comes to advertisers and developers considering mobile platforms, the question of where revenue is going to come from ? and just how much ? is crucial. In terms of mobile apps, freemium is certainly here to stay, but mobile advertising, as you?ve heard, is growing like gangbusters, with U.S. advertisers expected to spend upwards of $1.23 billion on mobile advertising in 2011, a number that?s projected to increase to around $4.4 billion by 2014.
And, perhaps more importantly, the numbers show that nearly 80 percent of consumers are comfortable with or neutral towards mobile advertising. Of course, as adoption of smartphones and tablets continues at a record pace, for that comfort level with mobile advertising to remain high, Google?s research shows that users are increasingly expecting more interactive and touch-friendly ads on their mobile devices. That?s why, last week, Google launched new tablet-specific ad formats that ?make it easy for advertisers to create rich media ads for tablets using existing assets (photos, logos, etc.)? and fire them out across mobile platforms.
This is great, yes, but advertisers and mobile developers want to know which platforms, OSes, and devices have the highest average click-through-rates, because high CTRs lead to monetization, and monetization leads to, well, happy developers, better ads, and hopefully happier consumers. As we saw in Sarah?s recent coverage, Apple has topped Android in mobile