metrics

If the latest AdMob Mobile Metrics Report can be believed, roughly half of smartphones worldwide are running iPhone OS. The runner up this February is Android, with 24 percent. Symbian is in third place with 18 percent.

Although this is a serious achievement for Apple, the story gets more interesting when comparing the data to the same time period last year. iPhone has boosted its share by 17% over February 2009, while Symbian OS dropped a dramatic 25 percent.

According to AdMob, the latest stats put iPhone OS web requests at 51 percent of all smartphone web traffic. The nearest competitor is RIM OS (Blackberry) with 19 percent of smartphone web traffic, while Microsoft Windows Mobile made third place with 14 percent.

Apple devices, including the iPod Touch, represent over 18 percent of total global web ad traffic. The only company with more traffic is Nokia, clocking over 30 percent in the same category. Worldwide requests from Apple devices increased 28 percent from December to January, hitting a total of 1.2 billion.