According to AdMob’s latest Mobile Metrics report, worldwide requests from Android devices have increased 5.8 times since April 2009. Globally, the iPhone takes the lead with 50 percent of the smartphone traffic share followed by Symbian with 25 percent. Android, which is barely a year-old platform already accounts for 11 percent of traffic generated on AdMob’s mobile advertising network.

However, India bucks the global trend. Symbian, which accounts a quarter of the global smartphone traffic, generates a whopping 94 percent traffic in India! What’s more, the top 20 Symbian devices are manufactured by Nokia. However, the list of these 20 phones hasn’t changed much this year apart from the inclusion of the 5800 XM phone, which speaks a lot about how the OS has stagnated at the moment.

In India, Android and iPhone account for just one and three percent traffic, which showcases how the market has failed to mature. We believe that the absence of carrier-subsidised smartphones and the relative newness of the Android platform are the main reasons behind this trend.

What’s interesting, however, is that the iPhone has managed to topple Windows Mobile, which accounts for just two percent of traffic generated on AdMob. Well, this figure can be a bit deceptive as Windows Mobile did not have an application store till very recently and hence, users using apps with AdMob’s advertising are expected to be far lower than those using an iPhone. We are certain that Windows Mobile is the second most popular smartphone OS after Symbian in India.