There were a lot of people unwrapping iPhones this holiday season, according to a new report from mobile analytics company Flurry. Based on data the company collected from December 19-25, iPhones and iPads had the largest share of new activations, making up more than 51 percent of all device activations. That’s a big chunk compared to Samsung, which only took in 17.7 percent of the market.
There’s a glimmer of hope for Microsoft in all this – its devices (under the Nokia brand in the study) came in third with 5.8 percent of all activations worldwide during the same time period, ahead of companies like HTC, Huawei and LG. Some of that may have to do with seasonal trends in different markets – devices from those companies often perform better in Asia, where December 25 isn’t the biggest day for gift-giving.
It’s been a big year for large-screened “phablets,”which gained market share among users who were activating new devices this season. Full-size tablets shrank as a total percentage of devices activated during that week, following a soft year for tablet sales.
Once people unwrapped all those phones, they set out to download some new apps. Flurry reported that app installs jumped by 150 percent on Christmas Day, as users rushed to get themselves some new software for their devices.
