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iPhone and iPad destroyed the competition this Christmas

Published Dec 30th, 2014 7:30AM EST
iPhone, iPad and Apps on Christmas
Image: BGR

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Apple’s iPhone and iPad were best-selling devices this Christmas, analytics company Flurry has discovered when looking at device activations during the period. Combined, Apple’s iOS gadgets accounted for 51.3% of total activations worldwide in the week leading up to and including Christmas Day (December 19th to December 25th).

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Samsung, Nokia, Sony and LG completed the top five device activations by manufacturer, with 17.7%, 5.8%, 1.6% and 1.4% share, respectively.

“To put this in perspective, for every Samsung devices that was activated, Apple activated 2.9 devices,” Flurry wrote. “For every Microsoft Lumia device activated, Apple activated 8.8 devices. 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.”

The analytics company also looked at app installs, revealing a significant increase in app usage on Christmas Day for the U.S. market. On average, Flurry recorded a 1.0 daily app installs average from December 1st to December 21st. On Christmas Day, smartphone and tablet users installed an average of 2.5 apps, a 150% increase compared to regular days.

Finally, the company also noted a significant increase in phablet activations this Christmas, compared to the previous year.

“This Christmas, it appears even more consumers are switching to the larger phone now that there is an iOS option,” the company wrote. “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. The phablet’s popularity seems to come at the expense of full-sized tablets and to a lesser extent small tablets.”

Graphics showing Flurry’s mobile-related Christmas findings follow below, with the full report available at the link in the source section.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.