Though plenty of recent reports have stressed the continued importance of Nokia on a global scale, few have detailed just why its continued strength in Europe is so valuable.

That's a factor ad network InMobi has attempted to overcome with its first worldwide mobile trends report.

Indeed, it's InMobi's belief that Nokia's leading role in Europe gives the firm a much stronger hand than people give it credit for, with Nokia handsets accounting for 47.8 percent of all ad impressions globally across July.

To put that share into some kind of context, that equates to almost 10 billion ad impressions across the course of the month.

Non-stop NokiaSuch a figure puts Nokia miles ahead of the competition, with its nearest rival iOS accounting for just over 8 percent of the market with 1.6 billion impressions.

It's a state of affairs that InMobi believes casts Nokia as a sleeping giant, with few within the industry actually realising the strong hand the company can play – for developers and advertisers alike.

"Apple iOS will face much stiffer competition from Nokia and Android globally," the firm says of the report's results, with iPhone taking on two separate competitors on each side of the Atlantic.

"While data suggests tremendous potential and continued success for Apple, its closed nature and premium price points compared to major competitors in emerging markets offers a much greater challenge for the device giant than in existing developed markets."

Keeping an eye on Android

By while Apple is being billed by many as Nokia's fiercest rival both in Europe and the US, InMobi believes it's Android that threatens its business longterm.

"While Nokia remains a sleeping giant with a 47 percent share of consumer mobile ad impressions globally, the emergence of Android offers Nokia its greatest challenge given price points and open sourced user experience."It's Nokia's contined strength that could prove crucial for the firm, with InMobi's qualitative research concluding that the continent offers the healthiest mobile advertising market globally.

Emerging Europe

"Europe combines the wealth and media sophistication of a developed region with the complexity that often defines emerging markets such as Africa and Asia; namely multiple languages and an inherent fragmentation due to cultural and geographic boundaries," says InMobi Europe VP and MD, Rob Jonas.

"Additionally, Europe has an emerging developer culture and an evolved consumer use of mobile phones relative to other regions."

The full research data can be downloaded from the firm's website, with InMobi also asking research, analysts and industry thought-leaders to contact them to participate in future reports.