The Android platform might still be in its infancy, but AdMob, one of the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplaces, launched its first dedicated advertising unit for Android applications today. Even though the Android platform was developed by Google, Google itself has yet to release a dedicated advertising service for Android applications. While the iPhone and iPod touch now dominate AdMob’s business, the company is clearly hoping for the Android platform to gain some market share in the near future.
In December, AdMob already served 27 million ads to mobile sites on Android. From the iPod touch alone, however, AdMob saw over 203 million requests from applications and mobile sites last December. AdMob launched its iPhone advertising network last July.
The launch partners for the Android platform include AccuWeather, TapJoy, and Jirbo. According to AdMob, the new advertising units will also be able to use Android’s GPS to deliver location based advertising.
What About Google?
Google has shown relatively little interest in doing advertising for mobile applications so far. It will be interesting to see if the advertising giant is going to hand this market over to other providers, or if Google will release its own solution in the near future. So far, Google only lets advertisers target AdWord ads on mobile sites for the iPhone and G1, but doesn’t provide a solution for mobile apps yet.
