AdMob, recently acquired by Google, has released their latest set of mobile metrics [PDF link] and the iPhone and iPod touch platform (iPhone OS) has a comfortable 50% share of worldwide traffic, and 55% of US traffic. That’s up 6.9%. In terms of top handset models, Apple’s iPhone accounted for 22.4%/24.1% (up 5.5%/5.2%) and iPod touch for 9.8%/11.4 (up 1.4%/2.3%)

Also up is HTC on the back of the Android Dream (G1) and Magic (MyTouch) to 5.6%/9.5% (+1.2%/1.8%) and BlackBerry maker RIM to 3.2%/5.4% (+0.1%/0%).

Everyone else was flat or down, with Nokia posting the biggest drop internationally (-2.6%) and Palm in the US (-2.2%).

Droid and other future Android devices will likely change things up for next time, perhaps webOS when it hits other carriers as well.

For now, however, Apple’s iPhone juggernaut continues.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

AdMob: iPhone Now Accounts for 55% of US Mobile Web Traffic

It seems as if Apple has taken some offense to the latest Verizon ad attacks that have targeted the iPhone as well as the AT&T network. BusinessWeek (via Engadget Mobile) points out that Apple has fired back with two commercials of their own and really rubbing in the fact that on the Verizon network you can not be on a phone call while checking your email, browsing the web, etc…

So if you were not a fan of the latest AT&T commercials what are you thoughts on these released by Apple?

Yes, we know if you are reading this on your iPhone you will not be able to view the videos, we feel your pain but as soon as there is a YouTube link we will update the post.

Commercial number 2 after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Two New Apple iPhone Commercials Take Aim at Verizon

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Reeder

I love Google Reader. The web interface is nice, but I desperately want an app to sync it with. I have found the perfect app; Reeder. Why? It looks great, has the fastest sync there is and the interface is fast and clean. At only $1.99, this app is a steal! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: iPod

One of the reasons that I purchased my first iPhone is that I have always been looking to converge all of my devices into one. I travel every week for work and carrying around an iPod, a digital camera, a cell phone and a portable DVD player can be a real pain while trying to go through the security line at the airport. With all of my cords, etc. I almost always get stopped and searched. Now while it seems I am picking the iPhone in general, I most use the iPod function. While being stuck on the runway, delayed at O’Hare, or long cross country flights, I need my music to help me get through the flight. If music isn’t what I want to do, I can always catch up on my latest TV shows and movies. [Built-in]

Justin’s Pick: Maps

I know everyone frowns on picking built in apps, but I haven’t tried any new apps worth talking about so my pick is the Map app. In the past few weeks it’s helped me, more than once, navigate new roads after getting fed up with traffic and turning off the highway onto some random street. Plus, I’ve used the traffic feature to avoid some routes in the first place. Besides TweetDeck, Weather, and Facebook it’s probably my most used app. [Built in]

Matt’s Pick: Notifications

I’ve never regularly used an RSS reader, because I would add a lot of feeds, then when I’d open it, I had all these things to read and that little number badge would be in the hundreds staring at me from my springboard. I happen to be one of those people that if there’s a number badge on an app, then it needs to be resolved immediately. So I deleted the app. Resolved, right?!? The resolution to my issue was using the Notifications app. This allowed me to set up certain RSS feeds to be checked and Push notifications to be sent to me. Notifications doesn’t only do push for RSS, but Twitter, Gmail & more, This allows me to pick and choose which RSS articles (or whatever) to view when they pop up instead of putting them off for later. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: Bejeweled 2

PopCap Games sure knows how to feed into my addiction of puzzle games. A few months back they successfully took over my life with Peggle and now I’m addicted to Bejeweled 2, more specifically, Blitz mode. Bejeweled Blitz is a one minute speed version of the classic game that is also available on Facebook. With Facebook Connect, Bejeweled Blitz is now with me everywhere I go! Not only is this game terribly addicting, but it looks and sounds amazing as well. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Instapaper (Pro/Free)

I learned a while ago that I had time to either read, or write — not both. Luckily, technological advances like RSS and Instapaper have let me squeeze in some honest-for-pleasure reading again, if only newsy/opiniony web matter. Still, with drop-dead simple bookmarklet integration on the desktop (find an article, hit the bookmarklet, it’s saved), and transparent syncing between desktop and dedicated iPhone client, no longer is my day filled with “boy I wish I had time to read that non-iPhone-related post” but rather a single tap on Instapaper and it’s now “boy I hope I have time to read this non-iPhone-related post later!” (I purchased the Pro version to support the developer, but there’s also a free version if you want to try before you support) [$4.99 - iTunes link] or [Free - iTunes link]

Crackberry Kevin’s Pick: BlackBerry Bold 9700

[Er, thanks Kevin. We think. Check it out on CrackBerry.com if you must... - Rene]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Reeder, iPod, Maps, Bejeweled 2, Notifications, Instapaper – TiPb Picks of the Week

MikaMobile, the developers who brought us the popular side scrolling shooter Zombieville USA, [$1.99 - iTunes Link] recently submitted their follow up release, OMG Pirates! to Apple for App Store approval.

Looks like we can expect a great side scrolling experience along with a campaign mode, an unlockable “hard mode”, and survival modes. Personally I am a huge fan of Zombieville USA so can not wait for this to land in the App Store. Look for it to hit the App Store within the next month at the $1.99 – $2.99 price range.

[Thanks to PhxBlue for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: OMG Pirates!

Like horrible holiday movie sequels, iPod touch camera rumors just keep getting spit out the mill with the same tired old plots and ever weaker impact. This time, the Examiner claims an “inside source” who claims that the iPod touch with camera was delayed last year from quality assurance reasons, but will return this spring with an iPod nano-like video recording capability.

Our take? Yeah, the camera was bumped from last year’s iPod touch G3, but Apple likes its product cycles so we probably won’t see a camera again until the iPod touch G4 is introduced in September 2010 (and we surely hope it’s not the low-res, video-only nano camera by then either — not on the flagship device, no sir!)

[Examiner via 9to5Mac]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod touch Camera Rumors Return

UPDATE: As expected, Rogue Ameoba’s Airfoil Touch has been approved, with the original graphics displayed from Mac OS X. Meanwhile, Gx5 tells us it took over a year to get their one-touch search portal app, iClueless approved following a string of time-consuming (given Apple’s process) rejections. Again we wonder if having a “big voice” makes a big difference?

ORIGINAL: Apple Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, has once again stepped forward to address growing concerns about the iTunes App Store approval process — but this time he’s avoided developers and their complaints about opacity and inconsistency, and instead gone to BusinessWeek to get ahead of the story going mainstream.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Schiller’s previous, highly publicized comments have been emails addressed to bloggers and Mac developers, and wrung truthy enough to give a tiny glimmer of hope to those who just assumed Apple’s upper management was oblivious to the problems around rejected apps. These comments read more like spin; like instead of fixing the App Store, they’re worried concerns are spreading beyond developers and the blogsphere, and instead of earnestly working even harder to fix them, they just want to minimize and marginalize the complaints in the minds of the general press and public, who might be hearing about it for the first time following Facebook developer Joe Hewitt’s high-profile exodus from the App Store.

The problem is, Apple has historically proven they’re terrible at handling bad PR. From the original iPhone price cut to MobileMe’s disastrous launch to Steve Jobs’ health to everything involving the App Store approval process to date, they come off as wrong-headed and out of touch until it seems almost too late. Case in point, Schiller’s comments to BusinessWeek today, where he cites 90% of rejections being related to technical bugs in the app (and contends developers are happy about the “safety net” Apple QA provides). 1% which fall into gray areas Apple hadn’t previously considered (example given, apps that help cheat at Casino gambling), and an undisclosed amount that violate trademarks or copyrights:

• “We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust. You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”
• “Whatever your favorite retailer is, of course they care about the quality of products they offer. We review the applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them.”
• “There have been applications submitted for approval that will steal personal data, or which are intended to help the user break the law, or which contain inappropriate content.”
• “We had to go study state and international laws about what’s legal and what isn’t, and what legal exposure that creates for Apple or the customer.”
• “We’ve had a lot of eyes on us. We’ve had inquiries from governments and political leaders asking us what we were doing to protect children from inappropriate content,”
• “If you don’t defend your trademarks, in the end you end up not owning them. And sometimes other companies come to us saying they’ve seen their trademarks used in apps without permission. We see that a lot.”

Rogue Ameoba’s Airfoil Touch rejection is used in the article, and Schiller responds in the abstract:

• “We need to delineate something that might confuse the customer and be an inappropriate use of a trademark from something that’s just referring to a product for the sake of compatibility. We’re trying to learn and expand the rules to make it fair for everyone.”

Apparently it will work out, however, as Airfoil Touch is being re-submitted with the original Mac OS X-pushed artwork restored. And some of Schiller’s points are fair enough, we suppose, they’re just addressing the wrong forum, and overall (still) avoiding the real problem. And no, it’s not Apple being a “gatekeeper”.

If Apple wants to run a boutique instead of a flea market, good for them — the market will decide if end-users ultimately prefer that to the webOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and WebApp alternatives. Just stop being a bad “gatekeeper*. Talk to your developers. Get a dedicated developer point man like Palm has. Take questions about the App Store (especially at WWDC). Spend less time with BusinessWeek and more talking to the great developers, so end users get those great apps. B’okay?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: Phil Schiller Addresses App Store — Not to Developers but to BusinessWeek

Apple Online Store has exactly one sale a year — “Black Friday” on the day after US Thanksgiving, and this year that falls November 27. While there’s no way of knowing exactly what will be on sale, and how much the savings will be (though they’re never much), Apple is getting their tease on already:

Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You'll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas — all with free shipping.

Mark your calendar now. And until then, start your research by browsing the Apple Online Store to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

For our international readers, Apple Canada, Apple UK, Apple France, and we’re guessing many other Apple Online Stores around the world will be following suit. Best Buy and other Apple resellers will also have sales, so you may want to shop around as well.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Online Store Teases Black Friday Sales Event