Google has been told by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that they can proceed forward with their purchase of popular mobile ad network AdMob.

FTC officials believe that new competition in the mobile market spurred by Apple’s iAd network was good enough reason for Google to purchase AdMob and compete against the world’s most popular mobile device manufacturer.

FTC officials have been cited as saying that regardless of the Google buyout, AdMob is facing tight competition from iAd.

The move gives Google the power they need to implement all of the ad strategies for Google Android 2.2 “Froyo” that they have been discussing this week at Google I/O.

After the announcement AdMob founder and CEO Omar Hamoui said of the deal:

“We are extremely pleased with today’s decision from the Federal Trade Commission to clear Google’s acquisition of AdMob. Over the past six months we’ve received a great deal of support from across the mobile industry – and we deeply appreciate it. Our focus is now on working with the team at Google team to quickly close the deal.”

You can read Hamoui’s full blog post here.

FTC Approves Google’s Acquisition Of AdMob, Cites Apple’s iAd Competition is a post from: The Inquisitr

This month’s Mobile Metrics Report lists the top 20 handsets and top 20 smartphones in each geographic region. While Symbian devices such as the Nokia N70 and N95 continue to be popular handsets, the report finds that the iPhone OS, Android and webOS have gained marketshare over competing platforms in the last six months. In particular, Android has shown strong momentum, with increasing usage of the HTC Dream (G1) and HTC Magic (myTouch) devices in the US and Europe.

Highlights from the August 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report:

Worldwide iPhone OS marketshare has increased from 33 to 40 percent in the last 6 months, with substantial share in all regions except for Asia and Africa.
Android growing rapidly in North America and Western Europe. The HTC Magic (my Touch) is a Top 10 smartphone in both North America and Western Europe.
Although its marketshare has been declining, Nokia continues to hold 12 of the top 20 smartphones devices in AdMob’s network.
iPhone represented 50 percent of US smartphone usage in AdMob’s network in August 2009, followed by RIM and Android devices at 14 and 13 percent, respectively.
Palm Pre also had a strong month, due to the addition of new publishers to the AdMob network, and captured 9 percent of US smartphone usage.
Nokia’s N97 and 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen devices were the fourth and fifth most popular smartphones in Western Europe.

This data is based on usage of handsets and smartphone devices during the month of August in AdMob’s network of more than 9,000 mobile sites and 3,000 applications. AdMob market share is calculated by the percentage of requests received from a particular handset; it is a measure of relative mobile Web and application usage and does not represent handset sales. Additional details and regional data are available in the full August 2009 report.

AdMob stores and analyzes handset and operator data from every ad request in its network to optimize ad serving. Each month, the AdMob Mobile Metrics Report aggregates this data to provide insights into major trends in the mobile ecosystem. Visit AdMob’s Metrics Report site (http://metrics.admob.com) to access the full August 2009 report, view past reports, or sign up to get an email notification when future reports become available.

AdMob August 2009 Metrics Report Analyzes Regional Smartphone Usage is a post from: The Inquisitr

The added cash will go toward building AdMob’s global operations, the company says, and further developing its mobile advertising platform.

“We believe that now is a critical moment for us to cement our leadership position by making the investments that will help us to come out of this challenging economic environment even stronger than when we went in,” CEO Omar Hamoui writes in a blog posting. “As mobile Web and application usage continues to grow rapidly worldwide, and smart phones — from the iPhone to the G1 — gain in market share, we see a real opportunity to expand the mobile advertising market.”

AdMob launched its first advertising unit for Android applications just a couple of days ago, debuting with such developers as AccuWeather and TapJoy. AdMob says it serves tens of millions of iPhone-based ads every month.

The company has been around since 2006.

AdMob Adds $12.5 Million to Its Latest Funding is a post from: The Inquisitr

AdMob has launched its first advertising unit for Android applications, enabling developers to monetize their applications on Google enabled phones.

The first developers to use AdMob’s new Android ad unit in their applications include AccuWeather, Jirbo, and TapJoy.

AdMob’s new Android ad unit allows brand and performance advertisers to reach consumers engaging with applications on their Android devices, to drive customer actions such going to the Android Market to download an application.

Ali Diab, Vice President of Product Management for AdMob said “Android’s open platform enables developers to build rich mobile applications that provide a great experience for users. We are already seeing strong interest in developing applications for Android-based devices, similar to what we saw with the iPhone last summer, and are very excited to take the lead in helping developers monetize their applications on this fast-growing device platform.”

AdMob has already started serving ads on Android phones and received a respectable 27 million requests in December 2008.

AdMob Launches Ad Unit for Android Applications is a post from: The Inquisitr

AdMob also announced that the company was now cash flow positive off the back of more than 6,000 partners worldwide. AdMob customers include MySpace, CoverGirl, Toshiba, and Comedy Central, and Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are AdMob advertisers.

The new funding will be used to make “strategic investments” to strength AdMob’s position. These include accelerating the growth of worldwide operations, with a focus on Western Europe, India, South Africa and Japan; increasing investment in AdMob’s technology platform, expanding current offerings for publishers and advertisers, and increasing sale and business development teams in the United States.

AdMob still isn’t a widely known company, but their numbers speak for themselves. The company is now serving 4.5 billion mobile banner and text ads per month, triple the number for the same time last year. The investment from Sequoia is a big vote of confidence in AdMob, coming after Sequoia led the charge on the doom and gloom front earlier this month. Sequoia also doesn’t do second rounds that often, so the fact they’ve invested here, and in troubled economic times, means the brightest VC firm in the land believes AdMob is a winner.

Congrats to the AdMob team on the new round.

AdMob takes $15.7 Million Series C is a post from: The Inquisitr

App-based advertising is about to explode. Ad network AdMob is announcing a slew of new developers getting on-board with its ad-supported model today. Loopt, Tap Tap Revenge, SportsTap, and BubbleWrap are among the apps joining those such as Whrrl and SnapMyLife, which are already using ads within their products.

Already, AdMob execs say their company has served tens of millions of ads over the iPhone each month — 35 million in August alone — and they say iPhone ads have been enjoying triple the amount of user click-throughs as other mobile-based spots. The take-home message: Expect to see more content-rich commercials on your phone in the future.

“The iPhone clearly demonstrates how mobile advertising is evolving to become a rich, interactive environment for advertisers to engage with consumers,” AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui said. “We are seeing a real impact across our larger mobile ad network as advertisers discover mobile through the iPhone, run successful campaigns and come back again with even more of their budget.”

The company is also announcing a new developer program today in which it will award $5,000 to a handful of app creators to help further their progress. The makers of Loopt, Stitcher, Tapulous, and Pandora are among the developers selected.

DEMOFall08: The Future of Mobile Advertising is a post from: The Inquisitr

The company’s multimedia capabilities, including WAP and video content integration, allow it to serve multiple mobile formats and a variety of needs. Ad Infuse offers what is claimed to be the first multi-format iPhone advertising solution, which delivers multimedia content utilizing the iPhone’s unique viewing capabilities for both web and mobile advertising.

Ad Infuse’s technology is focused on delivering targeted advertising experiences to each mobile subscriber, while its platform allows carriers to maintain absolute control over consumer privacy and asset protection.

The company also compiles interesting mobile statistics. Their metrics analysis shows that while iPhones account for less than 1 percent of mobile devices, they garner 75 percent of video impressions. They also claim (through metrics) that mobile advertising campaigns result in a 25 percent increase in likelihood to purchase a product as a result of exposure to that mobile campaign, compared with only single digit likelihood with an online campaign.

Ad Infuse’s total funding to date is $17.6 million from investors including Softbank Capital, ComVentures
and Storm Ventures. Their main competition is a company I’ve covered fairly extensively on TechCrunch in the past, AdMob.

Ad Infuse Delivers Mobile Advertising is a post from: The Inquisitr