Google (
NSDQ: GOOG) 
announced in Q3  that it was on track to make $1 billion in mobile advertising this  year; now figures just out from IDC really bring home just how far ahead  it is from the rest of the pack: Google accounts for 59 percent of all  mobile advertising revenue in the U.S., with the next-closest  competitor, Apple (
NSDQ: AAPL), coming in with just an 8.4 percent share of the market, worth $877 million overall. 
        What’s notable about the figures is that 
although a  lot of talk about mobile media today is focussed around apps, this is  not where the majority of money is coming from in mobile advertising.  IDC estimates that of Google’s $1 billion in mobile ad revenues, only  about $150 million is coming from apps, another portion from licensing  fees, and the “bulk” coming from mobile web, in the form of display and  search ads. 
(If anything, it seems that there is big money to be made from in-app  advertising, but only for the very most popular apps. Witness the 
reports  that the free, ad-supported version of Angry Birds is expected to make  developers Rovio $1 million per month in advertising revenues by the end  of this year.)
Google’s share represents a jump of 10 percent on last year’s 48.6  percent - a result of the growing use of smartphones (and hence mobile  web), the growth of the Google-backed Android platform, and the 
$750-million acquisition of AdMob in November 2009. 
Apple, which itself 
bought mobile ad network Quattro Wireless  in January for $275 million, was not ranked 2009. Other big gainers  included Millennial Media, which ended the year at 6.8 percent compared  to 5.4 percent the year before.
The IDC 
report, quoted in 
Bloomberg Businessweek, also notes that both Yahoo! (
NSDQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (
NSDQ: MSFT) are losing market share and will end at 5.6 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.
How will these numbers evolve in the year ahead?  It’s likely that with the growing ubiquity of Android devices that  Google’s share in the market will inevitably rise, too. Meanwhile, the  impact of premium-priced iAd advertising will certainly grow revenues  for Apple, but given that those ads will only run on Apple devices, that  potential for growth may be limited. 
What of the other smartphone platforms? How will they impact mobile  advertising? Not clear whether, for example, a Windows Phone 7 effort  will ultimately translate into Microsoft gaining market share in mobile  advertising. But in any event, the growing ubiquity of smartphones will  make it a more attractive medium for businesses to invest their  marketing dollars.
To that end, IDC believes that in 2011 the mobile advertising market  in the U.S. alone may be worth $2 billion, with some five percent of  online marketing budgets going into mobile, compared to three percent  this year. 
Still, one should always take analysts’ numbers with a gain of salt: IDC released figures to Businessweek 
earlier in the year  that estimated Google and Apple would end the year more or less level  in the market, a prediction that IDC had to revise as the gulf between  Google and the rest seems to be growing ever wider.
Source:  
http://moconews.net/article/419-google-widens-its-lead-in-mobile-ads-bulk-of-money-is-online-not-in-app/