If there was ever any question as to the increasing growth of the mobile business, all you had to do was wake up on Christmas day. This year saw an incredible jump in the number of smart mobile devices that were activated.
In fact, it broke all the records.
This is true for both Apple (iOS) and Android operated devices. It stands to reason that if a record number of devices were activated, the apps needed to enjoy them could not be far behind – and they weren’t.
Just as soon as the devices were turned on, activated and ready for use, people began the day-long process of downloading apps at a record volume.
Flurry Analytics, an industry leading app analytical firm, said that from a pool of 260,000 apps from which it could pull data, the app download volume for Christmas day was 112 percent higher than the average day from December 1 to December 20. The average activation for this time period was four million units.
On Christmas day, 17.4 million devices were activated – more than four times, or a jump of about 332 percent.
Christmas 2011 saw a single-day record of 6.8 million devices activated. This year’s increase was more than two and half times or about 300 percent more than last year. According to Distimo, app downloads from Apple’s App Store increased 87 percent from normal on Christmas day.
Most of the apps were for iPads, making it the most purchased and activated item on the Christmas list.
Normally the activation of smartphones is greater than tablet. Christmas 2012 was a tablet-heavy day. There was nearly a 50/50 split between smartphone and tablet activation. The usual ratio is 4:1 in favor of smartphones; this year, 51 percent of new activations were for tablets, comprising sales of iPad, iPad Mini and Kindle Fire HD.
As everyone starts to get more comfortable using their new mobile devices, Flurry Analytics anticipates that there will be more than 1.5 billion app downloads, and it would not be surprising to see the two-billion barrier broken for the first time.
Edited by
Braden Becker 
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