A Gift To Developers: 250 Million Apps Downloaded On Christmas

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By Tricia Duryee, A Gift to Developers: A Quarter of a Billion Apps Downloaded on Christmas via All Things D

A record-number of new devices activated on Christmas morning is leading to a tidal wave of new mobile application downloads.

Apple's App Store is on pace to exceed 10 billion downloads this year alone, which is twice the number it recorded over the three previous years combined.

The Android Market is also setting records. Over the past seven months, it has achieved more than 7 billion downloads, which more than triples its life-to-date downloads of 3 billion reached in May 2011.

At those rates, both operating systems are generating roughly one billion downloads a month, or the equivalent of 33 million a day.

The data was reported by Flurry Analytics, which creates tools that thousands of developers use to track usage of their mobile applications.

Christmas Day was one of the big catalysts for achieving huge end-of-the-year records.

Flurry found that application downloads more than doubled on Christmas compared to the average number of downloads occurring during the first 20 days of December.

On Dec. 25, it registered 242 million app downloads, jumping more than 125 percent over an average day.

In addition, because of its insight into application usage, Flurry is also able to see the number of new devices activated. Phones and tablets are always a hot Christmas item and this year was no exception.

On the average day in December, 1.5 million phones were activated, but on Christmas, 6.8 million were activated, representing a 353 percent spike. Last year, Christmas held the previous single-day record with 2.8 million device activations.

A Gift to Developers: A Quarter of a Billion Apps Downloaded on Christmas via All Things D

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Comments

[Robinson007]

09:12 AM on 12/29/2011

I really don't understand this. Who gives a smartphone as a Christmas present? And to whom are they being given?

They're far too expensive for kids and too personal a choice in general. Plus, there's something called a 2-year contract at big bucks... It all seems so reflective of crass, conspicuous consumption or indulgent parenting! I mean, what will these kids get when they're older? OK, OK, I suppose there are iPhone 3GSs that could be added for little money to an already existing family plan and wrapped and put under the tree, but I'll wager that a breakdown of the data will show lots of iPhone 4s at $100 and even iPhone 4Ss at much more $$ being given as gifts. From accounts I've seen, there's been a dramatic increase in how much people spend on gifts over the past decade or two and it's spoiling the new generation.

As they say, let's put the Christmas back in Christmas--it's about something other than gifts, especially costly ones.

[ResearchtheFacts]

03:43 PM on 12/28/2011

Android devices are being activated at the astounding pace of 5 million a week.

[she says stroke her ego]

02:47 PM on 12/28/2011

Two important words: WHO.CARES.

[lOstsOulsrembrd11]

09:12 AM on 12/28/2011

What's a cell phone?

I won't use one if it came free.

[J0E1]

11:25 PM on 12/27/2011

People are so dense.  I am friends with a mobile sales person at best buy.  The number of people who purchased and activated phones on black Friday alone was ridiculous.  The best part?  They weren't even running any specials on mobile phones.

[mericart]

06:20 PM on 12/27/2011

Cellphone companies are among the most abusive business. Charging you several hundred dollars over two years for a "free phone" even though you can buy a brand new unlocked phone for as little as thirty dollars.

[Pectin]

08:19 PM on 12/27/2011

So don't use their services.

[J0E1]

11:27 PM on 12/27/2011

You pay several hundred dollars over two years for cell phone service lol.  What are you going to do with an unlocked phone and no service?

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

03:01 AM on 12/28/2011

Outside the US, you buy the phone and the service separately. You can even use your phone with a pre-paid card. That's a much better system than what we have here.

[Barbarian At The Gate]

07:31 PM on 12/28/2011

A bare bones plan could be using AT&T's Gophone plan. $100 would keep the phone number active for 365 days. Add more money as you need to. All the other features of the phone would still work like Wifi access, PIM software, and any apps that you need or want.