A new study of mobile advertising shows that there is more to mobile advertising than the iPhone, as it was outperformed by both Symbian and  feature phones in terms of click through rates. 

The survey comes from mobile advertising firm Smaato, which has looked at mobile click through rates worldwide, based on the 6bn ad requests served through its network in April. 

Worldwide mobile ad CTR

Click through rates for feature phones, less sophisticated (but still very popular) phones than smartphones, continued to rise during April, and performed better than iPhones, Blackberries and Android phones. 

The most successful mobile OS in terms of CTR was Symbian, which is used in many Nokia and SonyEricsson mobiles: 

US and Europe

There are significant differences in click through rates between the US and Europe. In the US, the Symbian OS dominates the market, with a CTR almost three times higher than that of the iPhone. 

In the European market, Windows phones lead in terms of click throughs, closely followed by the iPhone, with Symbian in third position. 

This underperformance from the iPhone OS may well have promoted Apple’s recent decision to launch the iAd network. Steve Jobs recently commented that a lot of mobile advertising sucks, and this new move will look to improve the quality and performance of mobile ads. 

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

Since its inception, Facebook’s approach to privacy has drawn ire from users. But those complaints don’t often effect the sites popularity, which has skyrocketed since its debut as Harvard’s online yearbook.

However, Facebook’s latest expansion may actually have business repurcussions. Why? Because the site’s growth has slowed. Perhaps Facebook is starting to hit a saturation point online, but if the various groups trying to get people off Facebook find success, Facebook could be in trouble.

Every since debutting its new instant personalization feature last month, the din of ongoing Facebook privacy concerns has grown louder. And now upset users are organizing.

In addition to the ongoing anti-Facebook groups on the social network, users are increasingly looking for ways to get off Facebook. If you type “how do” into Google search today, the second option is “How do i delete my facebook account.”

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

Google’s approach to selling the Nexus One may have been noble. But it didn’t work. Four months after launching a web store for its top of the line smartphone, Google is pulling the plug.

The Nexus One will be available in stores worldwide over the next few months, when Google will kill its e-commerce site. According to the search giant, the world wasn’t ready for a wholly digital approach to purchasing cellphones. They certainly weren’t ready for the pricetag.

The search giant hoped to evade the strangle hold that telephone carriers have on the cellphone market, selling its smartphone directly through the web. Unfortunately, carriers have gained their stable middle man status by subsidizing hi-tech gadgets. By locking consumers into two-year contracts, they can offer headsets at low prices and make up the difference on monthly charges.

Google opened the web store in an effort to
change the ways consumers purchase cellphones. As CNET put
it in January:

“What Google is
proposing is a business model in which you pick a phone
and then separately pick a carrier, all without having to leave your
house.”

But it didn’t quite work out that way. The phone is only
available through Verizon and T-Mobile in the US. Anyone who would like
to purchase the phone to use with another carrier has to fork over 9
for the priviledge.

Since January, Google has sold about 150,000 handsets straight
through its dedicated website. No longer.

Andy Rubin, Google’s VP of Engineering, wrote on the company blog:

“As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While
the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our
expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for
early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on
experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of
service plans to chose from.”

Once the handset is available in more stores, Google will shutter the Nexus One website. They’ve already made some progress with carriers. On April 30, Vodafone became
Europe’s first Nexus One carrier. 

Until a manufacturer can find a way to offer a new smartphone for a drastically reduced retail price, it looks like we’ll be waiting awhile for another independent e-commerce approach to mobile.

Image: Google

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

The Forum of Private Business is welcoming the new Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government’s decision to scrap the planned 1% hike in employers’ national insurance (NI) for many staff members, a policy that had been met with strong opposition from business groups.

View full post on fpb.org – Latest news articles from the FPB

Top Ten Small Businesses Face the Judges
Wednesday morning was the last chance for the top ten small businesses in the Traverse City region to make a good impression before judges pick the top one.

Read more on 9&10 News Cadillac