“Since the beginning of the mobile revolution, Christmas Day has seen the highest number of new device activations and app installs each year, and 2014 was no exception. Flurry examined data from the more than 600,000 apps we track to understand what was under the Christmas tree and which apps we downloaded as soon as the wrapping paper was taken off,” Jarah Euston reports for Flurry. “It’s clear that Santa is no longer into cookies – he prefers Apples. It was a banner Christmas for the Apple, the company that started the mobile revolution with the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007. Seven years later, Apple accounted for 51% of the new device activations worldwide Flurry recognized in the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (December 19th – 25th).”
“Samsung held the #2 position with 18% of new device activations, and Microsoft (Nokia) rounded out the top three with 5.8% share for mostly Lumia devices. After the top three manufacturers, the device market becomes increasingly fragmented with only Sony and LG commanding more than one percent share of new activations on Christmas Day,” Euston reports. “Up-and-comers Xiaomi, Huawei, and HTC all had less than one percent share on Christmas Day. One reason is surely their popularity in Asian markets where December 25th is not the biggest gift-giving day of the year.”
“To put this in perspective, for every Samsung devices that was activated, Apple activated 2.9 devices. For every Microsoft Lumia device activated, Apple activated 8.8 devices,” Euston reports. “While, the holidays in general and Christmas in particular are not the sole indicator of the smartphone market share and trends, it is safe to say that Apple’s newly released iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have had a blockbuster holiday season, despite a lackluster holiday season for the consumer electronics industry.”
“Increasingly the new device market is being driven less by smart device adoption and more by consumers finding the form factor that works for them. Christmas 2014 saw a big jump in the number of phablets activated. As we reported in September (pre-iPhone 6 Plus), phablets were gaining share,” Euston reports. “This Christmas, it appears even more consumers are switching to the larger phone now that there is an iOS option. In the week leading up to Christmas, 13% of new device activations were phablets compared to just 4% in 2013. In fact, the iPhone 6 Plus was one of the top 5 devices Flurry saw activated for Christmas; the iPhone 6 was #1.”
MacDailyNews Note: Flurry’s device size definitions:
1. Small phones: 3.5” or less
2. Medium phones: 3.5” – 4.9” screens
3. Phablets: 5.0” – 6.9” screens
4. Small tablets: 7.0” – 8.4” screens
5. Full-size tablets: 8.5” or greater
The phablet’s popularity seems to come at the expense of full-sized tablets and to a lesser extent small tablets. App developers should take into account the fact that larger screens are becoming the primary device; it’s not just the secondary primetime tablet anymore. Even so, the medium-sized phone is still favored by most consumers and saw the largest share of device activations this Christmas,” Euston reports. “If Christmas is a bellwether for the year ahead, we should expect strong performance from iOS devices and a continued shift to the once-derided phablet form factor.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
To be followed by a Banner 2015
Apple Watch may be the biggest hit in the history of consumer electronics.
..to be exceeded, come 2016, by the fabled Apple Television! We have that on the good authority of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
51% of all activations during the week leading up to and including xmas day …
So I guess you could say that during the week leading up to and including Christmas Day Apple had the majority of the MARKET SHARE in respect to mobile phone activations world-wide.
Even … (wait for this) … Android!
How do you like them apples!
do you like them apples.
I couldn’t find the same comp from last year (days before and including Christmas Day), but found last year’s Christmas Day and these were the numbers:
24%. – Amazon
5% – Acer
2.4% – Apple
2.3% – Samsung
66.3% – Others
Apple taking 51.5% this year is HUGE!!!
To the person that gave one star for this comment – do you work for Amazon? I’m sorry that they are nonexistent this season. Better luck next year? *shrugs shoulders. The crickets of crap known as Android is falling into the sea like a giant flaming poo. Maybe you should team up with the Zuck and give the natives a Porta-Potty instead of trying to cram Facebook and Android down their throats. To these people communicating with smoke signals is high-tech. Your slash and burn business model is turning into the fail of the century.