Apple may not hold the top spot when it comes to operating systems, but it’s absolutely crushing it on mobile ad market share. Despite Samsung’s gigantic ad budget and rapidly growing market share, Apple devices are proving to be way, way better vehicles for creating mobile ad impressions.

According to a release by data firm AdPhonic, the number of users viewing mobile ads on Samsung devices grew by 1% in Q3, to 24%.

Over at apple, however, it grew by 3% — from 34% to 37%.

Even more impressive, the impact of the iPhone5 and iPad Mini aren’t accounted for… because they weren’t introduced until Q4.

Why is Apple continuing to gain ground? Is it the design? Or is it the fact that Apple users are simply more addicted to their machines? It’s probably all of the above…

The truth is that Apple users are still spend the most time on their devices, which translates to more money. Apple users just feel more comfortable buying products online, via iTunes or elsewhere.

It would be really interesting to see Amazon’s mobile purchasing information — because I have a hunch that the majority of Amazon’s mobile customers DON’T ride in on a Kindle. I’m guessing iOS users make the most purchases across almost all of the largest e-commerce sites.

Research tells us that Apple users convert at higher rate and have a much high app retention rate than other smartphone or tablet users.

RIM and Nokia are both hemorrhaging market share, while Apple and Samsung are taking advantage. The biggest difference, patent lawsuits aside, is that Samsung devices mostly rely on Android.

Android has almost twice as many users, but those users tend to spend less. You must optimize for both Android and iOS, but Apple is more quality versus quantity.