iPad apps more involving for users, valuable for developers than iPhone

Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange network for devices like the iPhone and iPad, released on Monday new statistics on iOS devices for the month of July. Unsurprisingly, games are the largest category of software on the iPad App Store, representing 20 percent of all options.

Within that category, users spend far more time using their iPad than on the iPhone. The study found that iPad users will play the same game three times longer than they would on the iPhone.

iPad applications also earn developers more money for advertising, in terms of total users. iPad software has an ECPM, or effective cost per thousand impressions, that is five times higher than on the iPhone. ECPM is determined by the dividing total earnings by ad impressions and multiplying by a thousand. ECPM can be used to compare ad earnings even when the competing sample sizes are vastly different.

Still, the potential for downloads and active users on the iPad remains a fraction of the iPhone market, as Apple's smartphone has a much larger install base compared to the iPad, which just launched in April.

Mobclix also found that users are far more likely to view an ad if it features rich media video. Ads with video were 10.7 times more likely to garner a response from iPad users than a traditional display ad.

That's good news for Apple's own advertising network, dubbed iAd. Launched in July, the iAd network features rich media advertisements that work like an "app within an app," complete with videos and interactive features like games. Apple has said it expects its iAd network to take up half of the mobile market by the end of 2010.

However, iAds are not yet available on the iPad, as the advertising network requires iOS 4.0. A recent report alleged that Apple will bring iOS 4 and the iAd network to iPad users in November.