Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

App downloads at Christmas for iOS and Android devices break record

By

If the latest data from mobile analytics firm Flurry is anything to go by, it appears a great deal of us spent Christmas Day shopping – shopping for apps, that is.

From its research, Flurry discovered that a record breaking 242 million app downloads took place on Christmas Day, more than double the 108 million daily average downloaded from December 1 to 20. That’s an increase of 125 percent.

Recommended Videos

“Nearly a quarter of a billion downloads occurred on Christmas Day 2011, which is more than double any other day in the history of iOS and Android devices, except December 24, which delivered roughly 150 million downloads,” Flurry Analytics said on its website.

Related

The analytics firm has come up with a neat chart (below) showing an hour by hour breakdown of how many apps were downloaded by smartphone and tablet owners on Christmas Day, compared to the average for December 1 to 20. To obtain the data, all time zones were normalized so that 7am in London matched 7am in, for example, San Francisco.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

On Christmas Day, it appears that an average of around 14 million apps an hour were being downloaded by users between roughly 10am and 9pm, where the number begins to fall off sharply. Presumably the large dinner and consumption of one too many alcoholic beverages are beginning to take their toll at this point, with many a smartphone and tablet no doubt sliding off a bloated tummy as its owner sits snoring on the sofa.

There were plenty of people clearly in no mood for a lie-in on December 25, with an astonishing 720,000 apps downloaded between 5am and 6am.

Perhaps the figures aren’t so surprising when you take into account that on Christmas Day a record 6.8 million new iOS and Android devices were activated, way more than the daily average for the first 20 days of December of just 1.5 million. Christmas Day 2010 saw only 2.8 million device activations in comparison.

Flurry arrived at its findings by collecting data from over 140,000 apps using its software, which is able to detect almost 100 percent of all iOS and Android device activations that take place each day.

[Image: Reno Martin / Shutterstock]

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The most common Skype problems and how to fix them
best mac apps for small business skype

Skype is an excellent option for video chats with your friends and family or conducting a videoconference call with your colleagues.  However, Skype is not without its bugs, hiccups, and issues that can make getting face-to-face with someone seem like an ordeal. To make things easier on everyone, we've compiled a selection of the most common Skype problems and how to fix them.
Video not working
If you can't get your camera to work or experience issues seeing other's connections, you might as well be using an actual telephone instead of Skype. Thankfully, these issues can usually be resolved with a bit of tinkering on your end, or they may just be service disruptions on Skype's end.

One of the more common problems that crop up is visual issues due to Skype not having access to your PC or phone's camera. For desktop users, open the Skype application and select the Three horizontal dots near the notification bell icon to access the Skype menu. Select Settings > Audio and video. If your picture fails to appear in the Skype camera preview window, you'll know there's a connection issue.

Read more
How to get Android apps on a Chromebook
Dell Chromebook 3189 2-in-1 on a classroom desk floating in the air.

Over the last few years, Android apps have been added to more and more Chromebook models. A brilliant expansion of the overall user experience, Google went ahead and integrated the Play Store into most Chromebooks made after 2019. This is the most convenient way to download an Android app or two, but if you own an older Chromebook, the machine may not have native support for downloading and installing applets.

To confirm this, we recommend referencing this extensive Android app support list from The Chromium Projects.

Read more
How to find your lost phone (tips for iPhone and Android)
The Motorola Edge Plus 2023 lying next to the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro.

Not knowing how to find your smartphone can cause a real panic when the need arises. It likely has way too much information about you, has access to your bank details and stock portfolio, and can grant access into pretty much any personal sphere of your life. Plus, you're likely addicted to your smartphone in ways that no device has ever addicted humankind before. In short, if you've lost your phone, you may start to panic.

Read more