Apple Dominates Holiday Sales With Nearly 50% of All New Device Activations

[MacRumors]

Apple devices accounted for just under half of new mobile device activations during the holiday season, according to a new report released today by mobile analytics firm Flurry. 49.1 percent of all new devices activated were Apple devices, and while that number is slightly down from last year's 51.3 percent, Apple still dominated all other mobile device companies.

Samsung devices, for example, were responsible for 19.8 percent of all device activations, while Nokia devices made up 2 percent and Xiaomi devices made up 1.5 percent of all device activations.

Larger-screened "phablets" like Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus were especially popular during the 2015 holiday season compared to prior years, representing 27 percent of new device activations. That's up from 4 percent in 2013 and 13 percent in 2014. Full-sized tablets have gone down in popularity, making up only 9 percent of new device activations in 2015.

Medium-sized iPhones like the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 were still the most popular Apple devices over the holiday period at 65 percent, followed by full-sized tablets, phablets, and smaller tablets like the iPad mini. Comparatively, only 35 percent of Android devices activated were medium-sized smartphones, while 50 percent were phablets.

Apple's phablet was introduced in September 2014, and in less than a year and a half has commanded 12% share of all Apple devices activated during Christmas week. This appears to be coming at the expense of medium phones and small tablets as more users opt for the size in between the iPhone and iPad Mini. You'll note we did not break out a "Large Tablet" category for the new iPad Pro. These are grouped into "Full-Size Tablets" and represented less than 1% of device activations.

As for app downloads, Christmas day saw customers downloading 2.2x as many apps as the average day in December across multiple platforms including the Apple App Store and Android's Google Play.

To gather its data, Flurry measured smart device activations and app downloads from the more than 780,000 apps it tracks. Data was collected from December 19 to December 25.

Article Link: Apple Dominates Holiday Sales With Nearly 50% of All New Device Activations

 

[dannys1]

"Larger screened "phablets" like Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus were especially popular during the 2015 holiday"...

...27% vs 54% for medium (or 'normal') sized phones. How does that make them "especially popular" ??

 

[persianemu]

Ah, good news, short the stock, panic, etc. etc.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Well, two of those are from me; one for Mrs. Thequik, and one for my daughter! Happy to help!

 

[persianemu]

"Larger screened "phablets" like Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus were especially popular during the 2015 holiday"...

...27% vs 54% for medium (or 'normal') sized phones. How does that make them "especially popular" ??

Maybe just in comparison to their normal ratio of sales outside of the Holiday window?

 

[groovyd]

'dominated' but down from last year... not sure if this is good news or bad

 

[Mascots]

This is yummy in my tummy.

 

[jclo]

"Larger screened "phablets" like Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus were especially popular during the 2015 holiday"...

...27% vs 54% for medium (or 'normal') sized phones. How does that make them "especially popular" ??

Compared to prior years.

 

[techpr]

Remember: Apple is Doomed

 

[GhostRaider]

I admit I was one of them. Got myself an iPhone 6s Plus 64GB and abandoned Android.

Honestly the 6s Plus is a great phone. Once you have used big screened phones, you just cannot go back to a smaller one. Everything looks crammed on a smaller iPhone 6s and on the 6s plus there is a whole lot of room.

 

[dannys1]

Compared to prior years.

Maybe state that then? It doesn't read like that - it reads as "they were especially popular this year in general" and then goes on to point out that medium sized phones are still twice as popular...

 

[dannys1]

I admit I was one of them. Got myself an iPhone 6s Plus 64GB and abandoned Android.

Honestly the 6s Plus is a great phone. Once you have used big screened phones, you just cannot go back to a smaller one. Everything looks crammed on a smaller iPhone 6s and on the 6s plus there is a whole lot of room.

Well i've been using a 4.7" iPhone 6/6s since the day the 6 came out and I yearn to go back to a 4" iPhone 5s sized phone still - so you can't blanked statement everyone with that theory i'm afraid.

 

[jclo]

Maybe state that then? It doesn't read like that - it reads as "they were especially popular this year in general" and then goes on to point out that medium sized phones are still twice as popular...

Okay, I've clarified the wording in the post. Sorry -- thought it was clear from the chart that compares activations by form factor across multiple years.

 

[Zirel]

Remember: Apple is Doomed

I didn't bought anything from Apple this Christmas!

(Listening to Apple Music through my Beats headphones, wirelessly connected to my Apple Watch Edition, with one eye on the Apple TV, playing a movie I bought from iTunes, another one on my iPad sketching with my Apple Pencil, over photos taken with my iPhone 6S, stored on iCloud. You know, a little pause, after all the hard work on my iMac 5K, developing Apps for the AppStores.

Can't wait until I can do all this in the future, in my very own autonomous Apple Car.)

 

[melgross]

Why are they still quoting "Nokia". The brand name for phones and tablets is ended, for now. It's now all Microsoft Lumia, for phones. The company, Nokia, may license the brandname, "Nokia" for phones again, but not for another year.

 

[Rogifan]

New device activations were down slightly YOY, that should be good for a percent drop in the stock tomorrow.

 

[dampfnudel]

Well i've been using a 4.7" iPhone 6/6s since the day the 6 came out and I yearn to go back to a 4" iPhone 5s sized phone still - so you can't blanked statement everyone with that theory i'm afraid.

I think what many of us would like is a small 5s-sized iPhone that can expand the display to 5" or 6" when necessary (like you sometimes see in science-fiction movies).

 

[KnighsTalker]

I still think Apple should make the tablets cell capable and develop a bluetooth ear piece in conjunction with it. It'd be like a digital brief case. By doing this tablet sales would increase. I believe the phablet sales point towards this.

 

[GhostRaider]

I think what many of us would like is a small 5s-sized iPhone that can expand the display to 5" or 6" when necessary (like you sometimes see in science-fiction movies).

That's what I was thinking too. I mean a 4" screen is, well small for some hands. Though you should know that Apple is building a bezel free iPhone. That way the form factor becomes smaller, but gains better display resolution. Integrating the home button with touch id onto the touch screen is possible. Question is when?

 

[driceman]

Most people don't need a smartphone and a tablet if they can just have a big smartphone. Not that iPads and Surfaces and such don't have their market, but I think people are still skeptical about replacing a computer with a tablet, and if they don't buy into that, they certainly won't replace their phone with one.

Ironically (and unsurprisingly), Samsung called it and Apple got the lion's share of the profits from it.

 

[nunes013]

Its okay the stock will still be down...

 

[kdarling]

I think what many of us would like is a small 5s-sized iPhone that can expand the display to 5" or 6" when necessary (like you sometimes see in science-fiction movies).

Or like the folding phone that Samsung keeps predicting each year that they'll put into limited production.

(I'll be first in line when they finally do!)

 

[Precision Gem]

I admit I was one of them. Got myself an iPhone 6s Plus 64GB and abandoned Android.

Honestly the 6s Plus is a great phone. Once you have used big screened phones, you just cannot go back to a smaller one. Everything looks crammed on a smaller iPhone 6s and on the 6s plus there is a whole lot of room.

MY Wife had a 6+ and hated it. She traded it in, paid some extra to get a smaller 6 since her contract wasn't up. She is much happier now

 

[robeddie]

Remember: Apple is Doomed

Yep, cue those guys ... as well as the flip side: people like you who probably think this means Apple will continue to dominate and grow and innovate forever.

 

[jayducharme]

The poor sales of smaller smartphones is probably the result of a lack of stock. Few companies make them anymore. And people looking to buy an iPhone probably wouldn't want a 5s that has less storage, memory and a slower processor than Apple's other offerings. The 5c had the same issues. If Apple sold a 4" iPhone that equaled their other offerings except in display size, then we'd be able to accurately judge whether people really want that form factor.