Apple dominated mobile devices activated this Christmas with 51% share

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2015
New stats showing devices activated during the week of Christmas reveal that Apple commanded the lion's share of new mobile purchases, accounting for more than half of all device activations by manufacturer.




Apple devices represented a whopping 51.3 percent of activations tracked by mobile analytics firm Flurry, as revealed in new data published on Monday. The stats were collected from Dec. 19 through Christmas Day.

Coming in distant second was Apple's chief rival, Samsung, which accounted for 17.7 percent of activations last week. Rounding out the top five were Nokia (5.8 percent), Sony (1.6 percent), and LG (1.4 percent).

"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," Flurry vice president of analytics and marketing Jarah Euston said in the company's blog post.

Unsurprisingly, Apple's new flagship iPhone 6 was the top device activated for Christmas, as tracked by the research firm. The iPhone 6 Plus was also one of the top five devices, though "phablets" accounted for just 13 percent of new device activations.




Flurry's stats also show that the most popular form factor for Christmas was "medium phones," accounting for 64 percent of total activations. Presumably it categorizes the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 as a "medium" sized phone, though the report did not define how it determines each category.

Full-size tablets represented 11 percent of activations, splitting evenly with small-size tablets. Apple competes in both markets with the iPad Air and iPad mini.

Finally, Flurry also found that application installs surged 150 percent on Christmas Day, when compared to the average number of daily installations from Dec. 1 through 21. Euston categorized this performance as "remarkable," considering the maturity of the U.S. market.

The December frame will represent the first full quarter for sales of Apple's new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and investors expect that Apple will have a blockbuster holiday season. Results for the December quarter will be revealed in late January.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 59
    droidftwdroidftw Posts: 1,009member
    So Flurry is a trustworthy analytics firm? I'm not saying I doubt their figures, I'm just trying to keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible here.
  • Reply 2 of 59
    Where's the other 26.5%?
  • Reply 3 of 59
    droidftw wrote: »
    So Flurry is a trustworthy analytics firm? I'm not saying I doubt their figures, I'm just trying to keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible here.

    1) The title is clickbaity, but I think the article starts out fine with "New stats showing…"

    2) Wasn't Flurry the analytics company that got in hot water several years ago with what data they were recording from users?

    3) Flurry looks to be doing well for themselves. From Wikipedia:


    1000
  • Reply 4 of 59
    Apple is Doomed!%u2122
  • Reply 5 of 59

    What is a "form factor"?  I think there is a consensus suspicion of what it is, but really it's a bit of jargony gibberish that should be eliminated from AI reporting.

     

    What are the "devices" this study purports to count?  Excluding 3G? Excluding EDGE? Excluding Wi-Fi-only? Excluding "feature" phones? Including which operating systems?  Including Microsoft Surface, a tablet-top?  Including netbooks?  Including Kindles and Nooks?  Including "white box" tablets?

     

    Quote:


    "the report did not define how it determines each category"  


    Right, I thought not.

     

    Are these global figures?  USA figures?  North American figures?  Western hempisphere figures?

     

    Not enough here to really make sense of. The "report" is just a flurry of fluff, leading me to wonder who commissioned it.

  • Reply 6 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DroidFTW View Post



    So Flurry is a trustworthy analytics firm? I'm not saying I doubt their figures, I'm just trying to keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible here.

     

    Stop lying. You're not trying to "keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible". You're just looking for an excuse to troll.

     

    Flurry is far superior to clowns at places like IDC who simply fabricate numbers (since they have no actual access to real data). Flurry (like Chitika and others) actually monitors usage of devices in the real world.

     

    I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but for those that are ACTUALLY interested in how Flurry works, developers integrate Flurry code directly into their Apps. This code gathers data they use to get their figures. This is why firms like Flurry can make accurate predictions about the number of devices as their software is quite literally installed onto millions of those devices (via Apps).

     

    All the top analytics firms that track things like iOS usage show similar numbers. This despite some using actual embedded code within Apps and some tracking visits to web pages or access to services. And these firms all agree on one thing:

     

    That iOS completely dominates in all metrics that count. Internet usage, online shopping, App revenue for developers, App downloads, developer interest, digital content purchases, Enterprise use. Everything but one - market share. Which clearly doesn't mean anything more than a number to flaunt to uneducated people to trick them that your platform is doing something right.

  • Reply 7 of 59
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    No surprise here. To use a Tim Cook phrase I expect Apple to report the mother of all quarters next month.
  • Reply 8 of 59
    droidftw wrote: »
    So Flurry is a trustworthy analytics firm? I'm not saying I doubt their figures, I'm just trying to keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible here.

    Flurry supplies codes that allow app makers to monitor their app usage. They should have a good view into device activation.
  • Reply 9 of 59
    What is a "form factor"?  I think there is a consensus suspicion of what it is, but really it's a bit of jargony gibberish that should be eliminated from AI reporting.

    What are the "devices" this study purports to count?  Excluding 3G? Excluding EDGE? Excluding Wi-Fi-only? Excluding "feature" phones? Including which operating systems?  Including Microsoft Surface, a tablet-top?  Including netbooks?  Including Kindles and Nooks?  Including "white box" tablets?

    Are these global figures?  USA figures?  North American figures?  Western hempisphere figures?

    I think I can answer some of those with some certainty. This wouldn't exclude any device that can't and didn't install one of their apps on a new device. The method by which they connected to the internet would be irrelevant.

    On their blog page they state "they examined data from the more than 600,000 apps" that they track. I assume these are mobile apps, and not Windows (PC) apps, but I don't see why they could use the same methods on Windows and therefore on the MS Surface. Same goes for the Kindle and Nook tablets.

    Finally, when it comes to app installs they do have a separate image and text that refers to only the US market, which would lead one to deduce that their Top 5 Device Activations are worldwide.
    This year, and on Christmas Day in the US, Flurry tracked 2.5x the number of app installs as compared to an average day in the first three weeks of December. This is a remarkable number considering the maturity of the US market and the difficulty of getting recognized in crowded app stores.

    I wouldn't expect their analytics to be segmented by nation but I could definitely see their services not being heavily used in certain countries.

    Overall, I'd say this sort of analysis is probably the most accurate type since it seems to be independent of manufacturer, developer, carrier, etc., although I don't know enough about Flurry to either trust or distrust their methodology at this time.
  • Reply 10 of 59
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Seems pretty clear that if someone was gifting a smartphone for Christmas that an iPhone was the likely choice over any competing device. I think that's the only thing Flurry was essentially saying. It wasn't referring to the quarter as a whole, only Christmas week.
  • Reply 11 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DroidFTW View Post



    So Flurry is a trustworthy analytics firm? I'm not saying I doubt their figures, I'm just trying to keep straight which analytics firms are considered credible here.



    The ones that don't lie and exaggerate Android numbers, that's who.

  • Reply 12 of 59
    Well it's been about 2 weeks since I went from a iPhone 5 to a 6 plus and loving it. Still getting used to the size difference but love the form factor and extra screen real estate.
  • Reply 13 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    And also, I'm sure glad that I'm holding some AAPL at the moment. I think that in three-four weeks time, Apple is just going to kill it, when they release their newest earnings report.:smokey: 

  • Reply 14 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bizzare View Post



    Where's the other 26.5%?



    They're not in the top five. The rest is just a mish mash of various junk. That's where the 26.5% is.

  • Reply 15 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post

    It wasn't referring to the quarter as a whole, only Christmas week.

     

    I think that the entire quarter is pretty much Apple's quarter, ever since the new iPhones got released. People didn't just start buying iPhones for Christmas. Demand has been insane since day one.

  • Reply 16 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post

     



    The ones that don't lie and exaggerate Android numbers, that's who.


     

    Now hold on. How many actually LIE about Android numbers? I've never seen an Android report that claimed they have more App revenue for developers or have higher usage in Enterprise (for example). The ONLY area they seem to win is in market share, and I have no doubt Android has a much greater market share than iOS due to the incredibly large number of $100 Android phones available around the world.

  • Reply 17 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post



    I think I can answer some of those with some certainty....

     

    Interesting. Your inference about this being a worldwide figure seems reasonable, though it surprises me. I hadn't expected Apple to make 51% on a global basis in the quarter.  Thanks for the ideas, SolipsismY!

  • Reply 18 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post

     

     

    Now hold on. How many actually LIE about Android numbers? I've never seen an Android report that claimed they have more App revenue for developers or have higher usage in Enterprise (for example). The ONLY area they seem to win is in market share, and I have no doubt Android has a much greater market share than iOS due to the incredibly large number of $100 Android phones available around the world.




    Of course Android has a larger market share worldwide. I was just talking about those marketing firms that try to predict the future. 

  • Reply 19 of 59
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Interesting. Your inference about this being a worldwide figure seems reasonable, though it surprises me. I hadn't expected Apple to make 51% on a global basis in the quarter.  Thanks for the ideas, SolipsismY!
    It wasn't for the quarter. Flurry was reporting on Christmas week only.
  • Reply 20 of 59
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    It wasn't for the quarter. Flurry was reporting on Christmas week only.



    That is true, but as I mentioned above, I believe that these results are pretty much similar for most of the quarter.

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