… to Bango.

“Even with the advent of Apples new iAd platform and Google’s acquisition of AdMob, BlackBerry still represents the best volume opportunity for mobile advertising in the USA,” said Ray Anderson, chief executive of Bango.  ”Apple appears to be losing ground to the latest Android handsets from HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung, showing the slowest quarterly growth in web browsing.”

The Android Market has been known to have a few issues from a developer’s point-of-view, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t proven successful as a revenue generator.

Arron La, developer of the Android app “Advanced Task Manager,” wrote a blog post recently outlining the revenue he’s earned during the latter half of 2009 and 2010 up to this point.  According to him, developing for Android has more than grown into a viable revenue stream.

La reports that the paid version of “Advanced Task Manager” generated $18,060 in 2009 and $30,400 so far in 2010.  Since November 2009, AdMob revenues in the free version generated $28,640 as of August.  In total that’s a little over $77,000 in revenue from just one app.

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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today, Blackberry-maker RIM is in the market for a mobile advertising acquisition of its own.  Those close to the matter indicate RIM has been in talks with Millennial Media, a leading independent ad-network, though it’s still speculation at this point.

According to those familiar with the negotiations, RIM has reportedly been in talks with Millennial over the past few months, but largely put it to rest after neither party could agree on a sale price.  Reports indicate Millennial has asked for between $400 million and $500 million, though RIM has backed down saying both Google and Apple overpaid for their respective acquisitions of AdMob and Quattro Wireless, and they don’t intend to do the same.

Millennial is unlikely to sell according to an interview with its CEO from early August with The Wall Street Journal.  Millennial Chief Executive Paul Palmieri said that the company hopes to make a public offering of shares rather than be acquired.  ”We are on the path of being an independent company,” he said.

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Greystripe today announced a new partnership with AdMob-owned AdWhirl to enable app-developers to incorporate Greystripe’s banner ads, including its popular “iAd-like” Immersion Ads.

Using the AdWhirl SDK, developers will be able to simultaneously integrate Greystripe and other mobile advertising networks, while optimizing for maximized revenue and fill.  The partnership is significant for Greystripe as it widens its reach within the developer community and furthers the availability of its unique rich media ad-units.

“Greystripe’s expandable immersion ads are the most engaging available today, which means great revenue for application developers,” said Greystripe VP of Publisher Relations Erica Chriss. “We’re excited to be working with AdWhirl to widen our base of developers.”

With its latest partnership, developers are now able to integrate Greystripe with other networks, including iAds, AdMob, JumpTap, Millennial Media and Quattro Wireless.  This is all part of Greystripe’s strategy to expand its mobile advertising offerings and extend its market position as the leading independent mobile ad network, and it seems to be working.

With iAd a lengthy one-week old at this point, Apple is already gearing up to utilize the treasure chest of user-data its acquired through the roughly 150M iTunes accounts it has full access to.

More specifically, Apple has commissioned a thorough study of the purchasing patterns of its users in terms of apps, music and video content to better target its key demographics and give more power to the advertisers using iAd.  Robust targeting capability is the true value with iAd, and Apple is going to do everything it can to give its advertisers the most bang for their buck.

A good example of which is Unilever, which together with Apple, has created an iAd campaign to target married men with children who are in their late 30s to market Dove men’s soap.  Analyzing iTunes purchasing and profile data, Unilever was able to create a highly relevant and targeted campaign that goes directly after the preferred demographic.

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The tension between Apple and Google is no longer a rumor.

It’s for real.

The former friendly giants have found themselves at odds within the digital advertising space, a bustling marketplace that, according to Google, Apple is attempting to shut them out of.

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple and Google enjoyed a positive, constructive working relationship – the product of which was the juggernaut YouTube app for Apple’s groundbreaking smartphone. Fast forward three years, and Google and Apple are locking horns over Cupertino’s ambitious endeavors in mobile advertising via the new iAd platform.

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It was only a matter of time before AdMob and others in the mobile advertising game responded to Apple’s updated developer terms which effectively prohibit app developers from using third-parties such as AdMob and Google’s advertising solutions on the iPhone.

The new terms have left many in the industry scratching their head as to why Apple would make such a blatant anti-competitive move, and the responses are starting to come forward.  Today in a blog post, AdMob founder Omar Hamoui expressed his opinion on what Apple’s move means for not only mobile advertising in general, but for others in the ecosystem as well, including consumers.

“These advertising related terms both target companies with competitive mobile technologies (such as Google), as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads,” Hamoui said in the post.  ”This change threatens to decrease – or even eliminate – revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers.  The terms hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their choice of how best to make money.  And because advertising funds a huge number of free and low cost apps, these terms are bad for consumers as well.”

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