holiday

Apple Sweeps Device Sales During Key U.S. Holiday Week

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 12:47:17 +0000

Apple Sweeps Device Sales During Key U.S. Holiday Week

By: Peter Farago, Flurry GM

Anonymous Fri, 01/03/2020 - 04:47

2020-01-03

Tags

Apple

Samsung

App Insights

holiday

The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day in the United States is the most prolific for device activations, app downloads and app usage. A wave of new devices flood the market as phones are given as gifts during the holiday season, followed by consumers loading them up with apps.

Christmas has become a battleground for Apple and Samsung, each fighting to capture share in an increasingly saturated market. On Christmas Day 2019, Apple came out on top, with this year’s iPhone 11 taking the top spot and Apple owning nine of the ten most activated devices.

For this report, we’ll analyze device activations from December 25 - December 31, 2019 to ascertain whether Apple continued its Christmas Day momentum through the final week of the year, up through New Year’s Day. Flurry Analytics, part of Verizon Media, is used by over 1 million mobile apps, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion active mobile devices per month. Let’s see what happened.

Apple Gains While Samsung Drops

Compared to December’s pre-Christmas level of activations, Apple captured significantly elevated market share between Christmas and New Year’s. Led by strong adoption of the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR, this is helping Apple reverse a slow, but consistent trend of market share erosion in the United Stares at the hand of Samsung.

During the last week of 2019, Apple captured market share at a rate of two percentage points higher than its pre-Christmas levels, while Samsung dropped by nearly three percentage points – for a net change of five percentage points between the two companies. For device manufacturers of this scale, and during the highest device adoption period of the year, these are critical shifts.

iPhone 11 Maintains Top Spot

Apple’s iPhone 11—this year’s lowest end model of the 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max trifecta—continues to dominate the smartphone landscape, representing 15.4% of all new Apple devices activated and 6.16% of all smartphones activated between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Apple’s 2018 iPhone XR, which was the dominant device leading up to Christmas Day in 2019, comes in at a close second with 13.2% of all Apple devices and 5.27% of all smartphones. In fact, Apple’s older generation devices continue getting traction, likely appealing to more price sensitive customers. iPhones 6, 7 and 8 all cracked the Top 10 list.

Samsung’s Post Christmas Drop

While our earlier analysis showed that Samsung was the one non-Apple device to crack the Top 10 on Christmas Day, the Galaxy A10e fell off the list to number eleven, post-Christmas. Apple still holds nine of the ten spots, with Xiaomi’s Mi 4 LTE moving into the number ten spot.

Apple Drives Holiday Device Activations

The final chart, shown below, plots the market share earned by Apple and Samsung each day from December 1 - December 31, 2019. Take a look, and then let us walk you through it.

Apple’s daily captured market share is represented by the blue segment line and Samsung’s by the orange segment line. Overlayed in the chart for reference, we also highlight three distinct periods of the month in gray: December 1-20, December 21-24 and December 25-31.

Baseline: The first section, December 1-20, can be considered a baseline. We took the average daily device activations and set them to “1.” New device activations during this period were relatively steady.
Ramp to Christmas: The second period, from December 21-24, is the ramp to Christmas during which device activations begin to climb. On average, this period saw new device activations at 1.3 times the baseline rate.
Holiday Week: Finally, the third section is the Christmas to New Year’s week, from 12/25 - 12/31. This is by far the highest activation period of the year, and 1.7 times greater than the December baseline rate. Christmas Day, alone, is the highest new device activation day of the year, at 2.2 times the baseline rate.

Inspecting the chart, we notice a few key trends. First, Apple is earning between 39% - 47% of new device activations across December, and their share climbs as the month progresses. This averages out to 43% for the month, which holds Apple around the market share rate we calculated just before the holiday season. Meanwhile Samsung earned between 24% - 28% across December, delivering a total December share of 26.5%. This is lower than the approximately 30% U.S. market share we calculated for Samsung ahead of the holidays.

We believe that Apple’s performance over the holidays is helped by its annual device release strategy each Fall, where they build up demand ahead of the holidays and align with gift purchasing behavior in the United States. In particular, the combination of the new 2019 iPhone 11 and the 2018 iPhone XR, which continues to sell strongly during the 2019 holiday season, drove high volume for Apple.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from all of us at Flurry. We look forward to sharing more app economy insights over 2020 and wish everyone a happy, healthy, successful 2020.

Apple and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Samsung is a trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd in the United States and other countries.

Apple Dominates Samsung on Christmas Day 2019

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:38:48 +0000

Apple Dominates Samsung on Christmas Day 2019

By: Peter Farago, Flurry GM

Anonymous Fri, 12/27/2019 - 09:38

2019-12-27

Tags

Christmas Day in the United States is the single greatest day of the year for new device activations. For Apple, in a maturing U.S. smartphone market in which Samsung continues to take share, Christmas has also become a battleground.

The importance of Christmas 2019 to Apple can be traced back to Christmas 2018. Entering the 2018 holiday season, Apple was transitioning to the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR. To grow revenue, Apple would need to both increase average selling prices and total market share – a tough feat. While the XS and XS Max pushed the upper limits of price points, the XR was sent down-market as the fighting brand to disrupt Samsung growth. The combination has been potent. Apple delivered record fiscal 2019 revenue while also stabilizing U.S. market share in the face of Samsung’s multi-year advancing growth.

For this report, Flurry studies US Christmas Day 2019 device adoption. Flurry Analytics, part of Verizon Media, is used by over 1 million mobile apps, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion active mobile devices per month. Let’s get to some results.

Apple More Than Doubles Device Adoption on Christmas Day

For both Apple and Samsung, device activations increased significantly on Christmas Day. Compared to the average daily device activation rate between December 1 - 20, Apple’s Christmas Day activations increased by 2.47X. Samsung saw an increase of 1.95X.

Apple Increases Its Market Share on Christmas

Changes in device adoption rates between Apple and Samsung also translated into a shift in market share. Again comparing a baseline period of December 1 - 20 versus December 25th, we show show the market share shift below.

From the first part of December to Christmas Day, Apple increased its market share from 40% to 41.7%. It’s worth considering that they did so on an already very high volume of device activations. While a few percentage points may not seem like much, it’s actually a significant shift at this scale. Meanwhile, Samsung saw a drop from 26.4% to 21.7% during Christmas. Now let’s move to uptake by device model.

iPhone Dominates Top 10 Device Model Activations

The next chart shows the top 10 device models activated on Christmas Day. With 9 of them coming from Apple, it’s nearly an Apple sweep. The only Samsung device to break into the top 10 is the budget-oriented Galaxy A10e taking the ninth spot. For Apple over this holiday season, the iPhone 11 and XR continue to jockey for the top spot. For Christmas, the iPhone 11 finally took the number 1 spot with just over 6% of the market. The XR, still selling well, took about 5.5% share on Christmas. The next four devices are older Apple models: the iPhone 7, 8, 6S and 8 Plus, respectively. Apple’s most advanced device, the iPhone 11 Pro Max captured 2.7% and ranked as the 7th best adopted device on Christmas Day.

Development in The New Year

As device manufacturers continue to drive smartphone innovation, app developers will continue to have a healthy foundation on which to expand their businesses. Samsung is expected to respond to Apple in January with Lunar New Year, and roll-outs of 5G networks will create new opportunities for innovation. Flurry wishes all our developers and friends a Happy Holidays. We look forward to working with you in 2020.

Apple and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Samsung is a trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd in the United States and other countries.

Apple Wins 2017 Smartphone Holiday Season

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 13:49:36 +0000

Apple Wins 2017 Smartphone Holiday Season

By: Chris Klotzbach, Director at Flurry and Lali Kesiraju, Marketing and Analytics Manager at Flurry

Anonymous Wed, 12/27/2017 - 05:49

2017-12-27

Tags

2017 was another marquee year for smartphone sales and innovation with the introduction and evolution of manufacturers’ flagship devices, such as Apple’s iPhone X, Google’s Pixel 2, and Samsung’s Galaxy S8. With more consumer options than ever before, Flurry took a look at the most gifted smartphones and tablets around the globe this holiday season, examining activations throughout the week leading up to Christmas day and the end of Chanukah. Flurry Analytics, part of Oath, is used by over 1M mobile apps and has insight into 2.1 billion devices worldwide.

Apple Holds Holiday Share; Google Nowhere In Sight

Similar to last year, 44% of new phone and tablet activations were Apple devices. While Samsung dominates global market share, they fell short as the gift of choice during the holiday season, with only 26% of activated devices in the lead up to Christmas. Samsung’s activation rate is up 5% from the 2016 holiday season, which can likely be attributed to the 2017 introduction of the Galaxy S8 after the late 2016 recall of their malfunctioning Note devices.

The remaining six manufacturers build affordable Android alternatives to Samsung devices. This is the first year that Vivo has had significant adoption, which can be attributed to their growth in China and India. Google is once again missing from this chart, despite the fanfare around the launch of the Pixel 2. It is safe to say that due to limited phone models (4) and lack of consumer mindshare, the Pixel is failing to pique users’ interest.

Apple fanatics were given many gifts this year with the launch of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the commemorative iPhone X. In order to understand their impact on device adoption and holiday sales, Flurry broke down the top 10 Apple smartphone device activations for the week leading up to Christmas.

Despite strong launches of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X — which made up close to a third of all new activations this holiday season — Apple is still seeing significant sales from their older model smartphones. This is largely attributed to the affordability of the older models and availability in markets outside of the US. iPhone 7 and 6 take the top two spots with the X coming in a close third. The prominence of the iPhone 6 is particularly interesting, as Apple only relaunched that model to resellers in select international markets in the spring of 2017. It’s apparent that the consumer concern for cost is still significant, as the iPhone 6 is often marketed as the most affordable option in the regions where it is available.

Phablets are the Dominant Global Device

Phablet devices (5in-6.9in) have successfully overtaken medium phone (3.5in-4.9in) market share in 2017 with 53% of all holiday activations. Phablets have proven to be consumers’ device size of choice, often eliminating the need for both a tablet and medium or small phone. Full size tablet device activations have stabilized, with Phablets eating away significantly at Small Tablets and Medium Phones.

Paired with your Smartphone, Apps are the Best gift to Give!

Consumers armed with their new devices are the best audience for developers to drive adoption of their applications. Flurry wishes all our developers and friends a Happy New Year! We look forward to working with you in 2018. Stay tuned for our 2017 State of Mobile in the coming weeks.

From Apps to iPhones: Holiday Shoppers Invest in Apple

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 13:49:17 +0000

From Apps to iPhones: Holiday Shoppers Invest in Apple

By: Chris Klotzbach, Director at Flurry and Lali Kesiraju, Marketing and Analytics Manager at Flurry

Anonymous Tue, 12/27/2016 - 05:49

2016-12-27

Tags

With the dates of Christmas and Chanukah synced this year, smartphones were once again predominate on everyone’s wish lists. As we do every year, Flurry took a look at the most gifted smartphones and tablets around the globe this holiday season, examining phone and app activation throughout the week leading up to Christmas day and the start of Chanukah.

For every Samsung Device Activated, Apple Saw Two

Did you get a new phone this holiday season? Chances are you got an iPhone.

This year, 44% of new phone and tablet activations were Apple devices with Samsung seeing 21%. While Samsung is slowly growing in popularity throughout the holiday season, up 1% from last year, Apple devices continue to be the gift to give. Holding the third and fourth positions for activations are Huawei and LG; which is remarkable, as both manufacturers do not have an individual device within the top 35 devices activated. Their high rank is likely due to the fact that they have wide variety of devices and affordable options (hundreds of phablet and medium phones) for consumers to choose from. Perhaps not so surprisingly, missing from this chart is the Google Pixel. With only two devices, the Pixel and Pixel XL, and mixed market reception, Google struggled to drum up excitement this holiday season.

Phablets are the Phuture

Phablets devices (5in-6.9in) continue to eat away at medium phone (3.5in-4.9in) market share. Although medium phones saw the most activations during the week leading up to the holidays, Phablets continue to increase their holiday share, at the detriment of the medium phone. Tablet device activations have stabilized and are relatively flat year over year. This indicates that users find purpose for their purchase, albeit the devices cater to more niche use.

The increasing number of phablets activated year-over-year falls inline with our assessment earlier this year that they will be the dominant form factor at the end of 2016.

Paired with your Smartphone, Apps are the Best gift to Give!

On trend with years past, Christmas Day was the biggest day for app downloads. Flurry once again tracked two times as many app installs on Christmas Day as on an average day in December. Key categories that over-indexed for installs on Christmas day were Messaging & Social, Games, Music, Media, & Entertainment, and Kids & Family apps. Mobile users were catching up with loved ones, entertaining their guess and distracting kids, all on their devices.

Flurry wishes all our developers and friends a Happy New Year! We look forward to working with you in 2017! Stay tuned for our 2016 State of Mobile in the coming weeks.

Christmas Continues To Set App Download Records In Spite Of Slowing Growth and Globalization of App Market

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 06:19:58 +0000

Christmas Continues To Set App Download Records In Spite Of Slowing Growth and Globalization of App Market

By: Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD

Anonymous Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:19

2013-12-30

Tags

App Insights

holiday

December 30, 2013 | Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD

As we said in previous posts, connected devices have become part of our Christmas andThanksgiving traditions. This marks a change from just a few years ago when smartphones and tablets represented exciting new additions to our lives that we couldn’t wait to unwrap, activate, and start filling up with apps.

Flurry’s data showed another record-breaking level of app downloads this Christmas, but it also provides further evidence that, in the early mobile markets at least, devices are evolving from being our new shiny toys to our everyday companions.

For this report, we looked across more than 400,000 apps that Flurry tracks globally to see what happened around the Christmas tree. We found that Christmas downloads were up by 91% compared to an average day in the first three weeks of December. That is a large increase, but as shown below, the size of the Christmas download spike is diminishing over time as the app market matures and globalizes.

2013 was the biggest Christmas yet for mobile app downloads. As the chart below shows, overall app downloads increased by 11% on Christmas 2013 compared to Christmas 2012. Over the same one year time span, there was a 25% increase in app downloads on an average December day. As the data illustrates, both the overall rate of year-on-year growth and the year-on-year Christmas growth have slowed considerably in the past year (from 97% and 90% respectively between 2011 and 2012).

The slowing growth rates and smaller Christmas Day app download spike signal market maturation. Many consumers in Western Europe and English-speaking countries – large mobile markets where Christmas is a big holiday – already have a smartphone and / or a tablet. Fewer people are coming online with mobile for the very first time. Consumers who are on second, third or fourth devices have apps that they like and trust, and while they still download new apps, there isn’t much more impetus to do so on Christmas than any other day when they have a little downtime. New device activations do still spike on Christmas, but that spike is waning compared to years past, and it comes on top of a much larger installed base. That means that when new devices are loaded with apps, the overall impact on app download volume is not as big.

The biggest growth in mobile now is coming in countries where Christmas is a less significant holiday or not celebrated at all, so new device activations and app downloads come at different times of the year in those places. And because those high-growth areas are joining an already large global market, overall growth rates are less striking than when the mobile market was new.

To look at the types of apps that see the greatest increase in downloads at Christmas, we indexed the numbers by comparing Christmas to an average day in the first three weeks of December to eliminate inflation due to the continued growth of the overall connected device installed base.

After doing that, we see a similar phenomenon to what happened on Thanksgiving. Because our devices have become so intertwined with our lives, on a day like Christmas when most of us are relaxing, the apps we download reflect that. Games and social apps were downloaded on Christmas at twice the rate they were on a typical December day. The other categories that experienced the largest surge in Christmas downloads were media (photo, video, music) and lifestyle (sports, books, magazines, entertainment).

Maturation of the app market means that changes are in store for app developers. The gold rush days of huge jumps in the overall size of the connected device installed base on Christmas, followed by a dizzying rush of app downloads are fading. Of course, there will still be apps that tap into some vein of consumer interest or amusement and developers who strike it rich as a consequence. But overall, the successful developers in 2014 and beyond will be those who put in the hard work of identifying a target group of users, creating apps that work well for them, and continually refining and reinventing mobile experiences to profitably retain those users. We’ll talk more about that in early 2014.

Amazon Delivers A Great Christmas For Its Kindle

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 06:17:30 +0000

Amazon Delivers A Great Christmas For Its Kindle

By: Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD

Anonymous Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:17

2013-12-27

Tags

App Insights

holiday

tablet

December 27, 2013 |

In less than a decade, connected devices have become an integral part of Christmas. They are commonly wished for and given as gifts, and Christmas is the biggest day of the year for new device activations. That tradition continued this Christmas, with device activations up by 63% compared to an average day in the first three weeks of December.

To identify what types of devices are most gifted, we compared new device activations on Christmas to the average for the first three weeks of December. This approach adjusts for the fact that the smartphone and tablet installed base is growing all the time, and therefore a large part of the difference between one Christmas and the next is a result of growth in the installed base rather than increased Christmas giving.

The chart below shows the smartphone and tablet manufacturers that experience the greatest increase in activations on Christmas compared to a typical December day. For the past three years, Amazon has been the brand of device that has experienced the largest bump in Christmas activations compared to its normal level of activations.

We believe price, business model, target market, and form factor all contribute to the big boost in Kindle activations at Christmas relative to other times of the year. Amazon sells Kindle tablets at cost, putting them within the Christmas budgets of more people than some other devices. The reason Amazon sells tablets at cost is that for them tablets are a channel for promoting physical goods and promoting and delivering digital content. That same retail business model means that Amazon is top of mind for many consumers during the holiday season, giving it lots of opportunity to promote its tablets as Christmas gifts. As we discussed prior to Christmas, Kindle’s new Mayday button makes it a particularly good gift for mobile newbies, and Amazon’s mass-market reach makes it available to those people. Last but not least, as we show subsequently, tablets in general, and WiFi tablets in particular, are the form factor that does best at Christmas, and many Kindles tick both of those boxes.

The combination of form factor and relatively low price probably also helps explain why Acer experiences a greater lift in Christmas activations than many other manufacturers, though the size of that bump is still only a fraction of what Amazon experiences.

In each of the past three years, Apple has experienced a larger Christmas lift than Samsung; however the gap between them narrowed this year compared to previous years. While the magnitude of the Christmas increase is smaller for these manufacturers than for Amazon, their baseline level of activations is so large that even a doubling of daily activations on Christmas (1.9x for Samsung and 2.3x for Apple this year, according to our data) represents a large number of devices.

Overall, while still significant, we can see that the size of the Christmas activation bump has declined over time for most manufacturers who ever had one. Even Amazon has dropped from forty-one times its baseline activations on Christmas 2011 to twenty-four on Christmas 2013. This is likely to be due to the increased overall penetration of smartphones and tablets, and is expected in a maturing industry. With more people having smartphones and tablets there are fewer new users to give them to, and giving to existing users is more challenging since existing users are already tied into carrier contract renewal cycles, app ecosystems, etc.

As shown below, in each of the past three years WiFi tablets have been the most gifted devices, with activations this year more than six times greater on Christmas Day than on an average day in the first three weeks of December. Smartphones are the least gifted connected device form factor with cellular-enabled tablets in between. We believe WiFi tablets are the preferred connected device gift since they work out of the box. Cellular-enabled tablets and smartphones require a data plan, creating an adult gift recipient version of children receiving toys with “batteries not included”. WiFi tablets also tend to be among the least expensive connected devices, making them more accessible gifts for more people.

Yesterday CNET predicted that Amazon will come out with a smartphone in 2014. We agree. Three of the four factors that help boost Kindle sales at Christmas – price, business model, and target market – also imply that it would make sense for Amazon to have a smartphone in its connected device portfolio. Whether it arrives by reindeer or drone, you may find one in your stocking next year.

Apps: The New Thanksgiving Tradition (and Shopping is Just Part of the Story)

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 06:16:06 +0000

Apps: The New Thanksgiving Tradition (and Shopping is Just Part of the Story)

By: Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD

Anonymous Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:16

2013-12-06

Tags

holiday

App Insights

e-Commerce

According to IBM, two out of five online retail visits in the U.S. on Black Friday were made from mobile devices, directly generating more than 20% of online retail sales. On Thanksgiving Day, smartphones and tablets accounted for an even greater share of online retail visits and sales (43% of visits and 26% of sales). These results show the extent to which connected devices now influence retail sales, but Flurry’s own Thanksgiving weekend data demonstrates that our relationships with our smartphones and tablets go well beyond picking up a Black Friday deal while picking at Thanksgiving leftovers.

App usage overall in the U.S. spiked by 25% on Thanksgiving compared to the previous Thursday, and not just as a result of shopping app use. The overall pattern of app usage over the Thanksgiving weekend demonstrates that smartphones and tablets have become the first truly personal computers, changing their function as we change our routines. To illustrate that point in this post, we take an in-depth look at U.S. app session starts from the day before Thanksgiving through to Cyber Monday. We compare Thanksgiving week to the week prior, and also compare those time periods for the two previous years. (By including the weekends prior to Thanksgiving for each year we can distinguish between overall growth in app usage and use that is unique to Thanksgiving weekend.)

The chart below provides a high-level view of how overall app usage has changed from year to year, and changes between the week prior to Thanksgiving and the week of Thanksgiving. The gaps between the green, blue, and gray pairs of lines illustrate the extent to which app usage in the United States has grown year over year, with baseline usage the week before Thanksgiving up by about two-thirds compared to the same time last year, and about triple what it was during November of 2011.

The darker line in each color pair shows Thanksgiving weekend for a particular year while the lighter version shows the prior weekend for that year. The gap between the lighter and the darker lines in a color pair shows the difference in app usage by day between Thanksgiving weekend and the prior weekend. For the past three years, that difference has been greatest on Thanksgiving Day, diminishing to return to normal by Cyber Monday. In 2011 and 2012, U.S. app usage spiked by 20% on Thanksgiving Day compared to the previous Thursday. This year the Thanksgiving spike grew to 25%.

Given mobile devices are so personal, it’s no surprise that they tag along as we enjoy Thanksgiving weekend, but we wanted to understand the drivers behind the Thanksgiving spike in app usage. Is it just mobile shopping? Recipe apps aiding Thanksgiving cooks? Football fans checking stats from the couch? Social networking apps used to stay in touch with family far away? What accounts for the extra app sessions on Thanksgiving?

To find out, we compared app sessions by category for Thanksgiving weekend to the weekend before, focusing on the three days for which there is the biggest difference in overall app use.

The results are shown in the table below. The rows are app categories aggregated across operating systems. The columns show changes in app usage between Thanksgiving week and the same day the previous week for each category. Each cell shows that same comparison between Thanksgiving week and the previous week for the past three years.

For obvious reasons, shopping apps consistently spike over the Thanksgiving period. Interestingly the bump this year wasn’t as large as the one last year; however that should not be interpreted to mean that enthusiasm for shopping apps is waning. On the contrary, between 2012 and 2013, overall use of shopping apps in the week before Thanksgiving grew by about 70%, so the 2013 Thanksgiving spike comes on top of a higher baseline usage level.

App categories beyond shopping that saw spikes in app usage during Thanksgiving week are fairly predictable. Media spiked on Thanksgiving Day in particular – most likely in part because it includes photo and video apps used to record family gatherings. It was also somewhat higher on Wednesday and Friday compared to the previous week.

More time for relaxation probably explains why game apps, which are always popular, enjoyed even more use over the Thanksgiving period than the week before.

What types of apps experience less use on Thanksgiving and the days immediately before and after than during the previous week? Mainly apps associated with things people take a break from over the Thanksgiving holiday: business and education, health, and news.

Travel apps also experience a decline in use Thanksgiving Day and the day after. That may seem counter-intuitive since Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest travel periods of the year; however it’s important to remember that people tend to be traveling to familiar places and often staying with relatives or friends so are less likely to need apps for booking hotels and rental cars or finding their way around an unfamiliar city.

So shopping does contribute to the spike in app activity on Thanksgiving, but it’s only part of the explanation. This data shows the extent to which smartphones and tablets have become our constant companions, morphing their function to our whims and circumstances in ways even laptops never really did. They are truly our most personal computers. Sure, you can use them to shop without getting out of bed, let alone braving crowds at the mall, but your device can also entertain you with games, music, and movies. It can even tell you how far you need to walk to make up for that second helping of mashed potatoes – if you choose to look.

Holiday 2012 Delivers Historical Worldwide App Downloads

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 23:40:01 +0000

Holiday 2012 Delivers Historical Worldwide App Downloads

By Peter Farago, VP Marketing

Anonymous Wed, 03/11/2015 - 16:40

2013-01-02

Tags

App Insights

holiday

The most important week of the year for app makers is the final week of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Starting with Christmas Day, the largest single device activation day of the year, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is marked by significantly elevated device activations and app downloads. This is the primary reason why companies jockey to rank well leading up to Christmas Day itself. This report reveals that the last week of 2012 was the largest week for both new device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history.

For this report, Flurry leverages its data-set from over 260,000 apps running on the significant majority of iOS and Android devices. With its application penetration, Flurry can detect over 90% of all new devices activated each day. Additionally, with its analytics service in more than 25% of all applications downloaded on a given day from the App Store and Google Play, Flurry can reliably estimate total iOS and Android downloads. To benchmark against the market, Flurry regularly triangulates its device and download figures with data released publicly by Google and Apple.

In its most recent report, Flurry estimated that a record-breaking 17.4 million iOS and Android devices were activated on Christmas Day, along with an equally record-breaking 328 million application downloads. Studying the data from December 25 – December 31, additional records were set, now for the highest number of device activations and app downloads of any week in history. Over the holiday week, Flurry estimates that over 50 million iOS and Android devices were activated, and 1.76 billion applications were downloaded. Let’s take a closer look at downloads.

The columns in the chart compare the number of app downloads during Christmas through New Year’s Day (on the right) versus the average of the first two equivalent weeks of December (on the left). The seven days from December 25 – December 31 spanned from a Tuesday to a Monday. As such, we take the average of the first Tuesday-to-Monday weeks in December to establish a baseline. The average downloads over these weeks were surprisingly even. The final week of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, grew by 65% over the early-December baseline, historically breaking through the largest single week record previously set during the same week of 2011. While several weeks since late November delivered billion+ week download levels, the holiday week delivered a record-shattering 1.7 billion downloads.

This second chart shows the top twenty countries across which the record 1.76 billion downloads were distributed. Starting from the left, the U.S. took the lion’s share with 604 million downloads, or 34.3%. Referencing an earlier report, wherein Flurry sized the installed base of top countries, it’s not surprising that the U.S. continues to lead the rest of the world, especially since the fast-closing second place China does not celebrate Christmas (only 3% of China’s population is Christian). Just before the holidays, Flurry estimated that there were 181 million active iOS and Android devices in the U.S. market, compared to 167 million in China.

Following the trend that Western countries more widely celebrate Christmas – note the higher positions of countries like Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Italy and Mexico in the chart – these countries over-indexed against largely non-Christian countries of China, South Korea and Japan. For example, while Japan and South Korea have the 4th and 5th largest smart device installed bases of all countries, they ranked 14^th and 10^th, respectively, for downloads over the record week. Christmas is not recognized as a national holiday in Japan, and in South Korea, roughly half the population self-identifies as non-religious. Countries that significantly over-indexed during the holiday include Russia, Italy and Mexico which drove the top 7th, 8th and 9th most downloads despite the fact that their installed bases are ranked 13th, 14th and 15th, respectively.

Looking forward to 2013, Flurry expects the trend of one-billion-download weeks to become the norm, and that the industry will surpass the two-billion download week during Q4. Following a year where Google and Apple drove unprecedented adoption of mobile devices, Facebook declared itself a “mobile” company, and Amazon and Microsoft both made significant investments into mobile computing, we look forward to continued record-breaking adoption of smart devices and applications. Happy New Year from everyone at Flurry.

Christmas 2012 Shatters More Smart Device and App Download Records

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 23:37:57 +0000

Christmas 2012 Shatters More Smart Device and App Download Records

By Peter Farago, VP Marketing

Anonymous Wed, 03/11/2015 - 16:37

2012-12-27

Tags

App Insights

holiday

More iOS and Android devices are activated on Christmas Day than on any other day of the year. This year was no exception. On this Christmas Day 2012, more iPhones, iPads, Galaxys, Kindle Fires, and more, were activated than on any other day in history. Moreover, as soon as we could tear the wrapping paper off our cool new devices, we started downloading a record volume of apps. Let’s get into the numbers.

The chart below shows the number of new iOS and Android devices detected worldwide by Flurry on Christmas Day. With more than 260,000 apps using Flurry Analytics, Flurry detects over 90% of all new iOS and Android devices activated each day. The company regularly triangulates its device coverage with publicly announced figures from Google and Apple.

In order to appreciate the magnitude of new devices activated on Christmas Day, Flurry established a baseline using the average from the first 20 days of December. Over this period, daily activations averaged around 4.0 million per day, with variance of a few hundred thousand in either direction per day. On Christmas Day, activations soared to more than 17.4 million, a 332% increase over the December baseline. By comparison, Christmas Day 2011 held the previous single-day record, having reached 6.8 million device activations. Christmas 2012 is more than 2.5 times larger than Christmas 2011, which surpassed its own baseline by more than 300%.

With a record number of iOS and Android devices flooding the market, we next look at the surge in app downloads. For these figures, Flurry estimates its percentage penetration per platform to estimate total market app downloads. The company also benchmarks download volumes tracked in its system against publicly released app download milestones from Apple and Google.

The above chart shows that, compared to the baseline, app downloads more than doubled on Christmas. Specifically, over the December 1 – 20 baseline, download volumes increased by 112% on Christmas. Despite the ever-growing installed base of existing smart devices, the influx of new devices on Christmas Day still helped deliver a record download day, besting that of any previous day in history.

For our next chart, we look at the distribution of downloads per hour across Christmas Day 2012. The shape of this curve looks like a table top, with downloads jumping early in the day to around 20 million per hour, when most of us were still in our pajamas, and remaining at this level for most of the day, even after the egg nog was gone. For perspective, we compare this to the average distribution of downloads per hour clocked between December 1 – 20.

For our final chart, we drilled down into the split between smartphones versus tablets. While smartphone activations typically outpace that of tablets by 4:1, on Christmas Day 2012, more tablets were activated than smartphones. The big winners were Apple iPads, Apple iPad Minis and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7” tablets. In particular, Amazon had a very strong performance in the tablet category, growing by several thousand percent over its baseline of tablet activations over the earlier part of December.

Over the next week, up through New Year’s Day, app download rates will remain significantly elevated. Flurry anticipates downloads to surpass more than 1.5 billion, and have a shot at breaking through the 2-billion download barrier for the first time ever. We look forward to accelerated growth in 2013, and continued success for developers.

Holiday 2011: Breaking the One Billion App Download Barrier

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 22:46:27 +0000

Holiday 2011: Breaking the One Billion App Download Barrier

By Peter Farago, VP Marketing

Anonymous Wed, 03/11/2015 - 15:46

2012-01-02

Tags

The last week of the year, from December 25 through December 31, sees more iOS and Android device activations compared to any other week of the year. Starting with Christmas Day, the largest single device activation day of the year, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is filled with significantly elevated device activations and app downloads. For application makers, this holiday “power week” is far more important than the run-up to Christmas itself. This report reveals that the last week of 2011 was the largest week for device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history.

For this report, Flurry leverages its data-set from over 140,000 apps running on the significant majority of iOS and Android devices. With its application penetration, Flurry can detect over 90% of all new devices activated each day. Additionally, with its analytics service in more than 20% of all applications downloaded on a given day from the App Store and Android Market, Flurry can reliably estimate total iOS and Android downloads. To benchmark against the market, Flurry regularly triangulates its device and download figures with data released publicly by Google and Apple.

In its most recent report, Flurry estimated that a record-breaking 6.8 million iOS and Android devices were activated on Christmas Day, along with an equally record-breaking 242 million application downloads. Studying the data from December 25 – December 31, additional records were set, now for the highest number of device activations and app downloads of any week in history. Over the holiday “power week,” Flurry estimates that over 20 million iOS and Android devices were activated, and 1.2 billion applications were downloaded. Let’s drill down further into the downloads.

The columns in the chart compare the number of app downloads during Christmas through New Year’s Day (on the right) versus the average of the first two equivalent weeks of December (on the left). The seven days from December 25 – December 31 spanned from a Sunday to a Saturday. As such, we take the average of the first two full Sunday-to-Saturday weeks in December to establish a baseline. The average downloads over these weeks are surprisingly even. For background, the third full Sunday-to-Saturday week, not shown in the chart, December 18 – 24, is elevated slightly due primarily to December 24 downloads. Up until the final week of the year, this penultimate week set the download record with 857 million downloads. The final week of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, grew by 60% over the early-December baseline, historically punching through the billion download barrier for the first time ever to deliver 1.2 billion downloads.

This second chart shows the top twenty countries across which the record 1.2 billion downloads were distributed. Starting from the left, the U.S. took the lion’s share with 509 million downloads, or 42.3%. Referencing an earlier report, wherein Flurry sized the current installed base and market upside for each country, it’s not surprising that the U.S. continues to lead the rest of the world by such a large margin. We estimate that just prior to the holidays, there were 109 million active iOS and Android devices in the U.S. market. Compared to the worldwide total active installed base of 246 million, this was 41%. China, the world’s second largest app market, which has roughly one-third of the U.S. installed base saw only one-fifth of the relative downloads. It’s important to note that the celebration of Christmas as a holiday impacted download performance. While the United States widely celebrates Christmas, China is largely non-religious, with over 60% of the population considering themselves agnostic or atheist. In China, Christians make up just 3 – 4% of the population.

Following the trend that Western countries more widely celebrate Christmas – note the higher positions of countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Italy, Spain and Mexico in the chart – these countries over-indexed against largely non-Christian countries of China, South Korea and Japan. For example, South Korea and Japan have the 4th and 5th largest smart device installed bases of all countries, yet they ranked 7^th and 10^th, respectively, for downloads over the record week. Christmas is not recognized as a national holiday in Japan, and in South Korea, roughly half the population self-identifies as non-religious. As a point of interest, Canada appears to have over-indexed the most, using its 8^th largest installed base to drive the 4^thmost downloads over the holiday period.

Looking forward to 2012, Flurry expects breaking the one-billion-download-barrier per week will become more common-place. While iOS and Android growth continues to amaze, the market is still by all measures relatively nascent. We look forward to continuing to chart the unprecedented adoption of mobile computing devices, usage of applications and the way in which this technology is changing consumer behavior worldwide. Happy New Year from everyone at Flurry.