Every year during the holiday season Apple products top the wish lists of many consumers and end up being one of the top gifted items when it’s all said and done. Now, Yahoo-run analytics firm Flurry Insights has shared the gift giving trends for this holiday season, again showing that Apple devices were among the most popular items received this year.
Of all new devices activated during Christmas week Apple accounted for 49.1 percent of them. That’s down slightly from the 51.3 percent it was responsible for last year. Samsung devices accounted for 19.8 percent of new device activations, up from 17.7 percent in 2014. Samsung’s rise in sales, Flurry says, was driven by the Galaxy Grand Prime, Core Prime, and S6.
As far as device trends in general, phablets saw a huge surge in popularity this year. In 2014, phablets accounted for just 13 percent of Christmas week activations. This year, they accounted for 27 percent of activations, representing a 2x increase in sales. Small phones, with a screen size of 3.5-inches or less, accounted for just 1 percent of activations. Small tablets, such as the iPad mini, accounted for 9 percent of activations, down from 11 percent in 2014, showing that many are opting for phablets over small tablets. iPad Pro accounted for less than 1 percent of device activations.
Christmas Day was also a huge day for app downloads. Flurry says that compared to the average daily installs for the first three weeks of December, Christmas Day saw a 2.2x increase in app downloads across the board. When you consider all the new devices activated, it makes sense for there to be such a huge increase in app sales that day as well.
Apple always sees a surge in sales during the holiday season and this year appears to be no different, even with it being an iterative year in terms of iPhone upgrades for the company with the launch of the 6s and 6s Plus. Likewise, these trends also show how Apple somewhat cannibalizes sales of its own products, like the iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus taking some sales of the iPad mini.
Let us know in the comments if you were gifted any Apple products this year!