Mobile analytics firm Flurry today reports Apple accounted for just over half of new mobile device activations for the holiday season, with 51.3 percent of worldwide activations going to the Cupertino-based company.
Using data from more than 600,000 tracked apps, Flurry focused on the week leading up to and including Christmas, from December 19-25. Trailing Apple in worldwide device activations was Samsung with nearly 18 percent and Nokia at almost 6 percent. Xiaomi, Huawei, and HTC all had less than one percent of device activations, which Flurry notes could be related to their popularity in Asian markets where the holiday season isn't the big gift-giving event it is in other parts of the world.
To put this in perspective, for every Samsung devices that was activated, Apple activated 2.9 devices. For every Microsoft Lumia device activated, Apple activated 8.8 devices. 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 also notes that on Christmas Day the number of app installs more than doubled compared to the early weeks of December, pointing to games and messaging apps as seeing the biggest jumps on Christmas morning.
The analytics firm also notes that "phablets" are gaining significant share in the market thanks to Apple's entry with the iPhone 6 Plus. "Medium Phones" such as the iPhone 6 still dominate the market as in years past, but the growth of the phablet in 2014 has taken share away from "Full-size Tablets" and, less drastically, "Small Tablets."
Looking at the year ahead, Flurry predicts iOS devices will continue to perform well alongside a continued shift in public opinion that will drive continued growth for the phablet form factor.
Monday January 27, 2025 11:17 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple regularly releases new firmware for the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max, but the company has historically provided limited information on how to initiate an update. That changed today, and Apple updated its AirPods firmware support page with more specific instructions.
Prior to today, here's what Apple said on the subject:
Firmware updates are delivered automatically while your...
Monday January 27, 2025 6:35 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Update: Apple has released iOS 18.3.
In its press release unveiling a new Black Unity Sport Loop for the Apple Watch today, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.3 is "upcoming." According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple Stores are being instructed to update the software on demo devices today, so iOS 18.3 should be released either today or within the next few days.
Below, we recap everything new...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Monday January 27, 2025 10:00 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released tvOS 18.3, the newest version of the tvOS 18 operating system that came out in September. tvOS 18.3 comes more than a month after Apple released tvOS 18.2, and it is available for the Apple TV 4K and the Apple TV HD models.
tvOS 18.3 can be downloaded using the Settings app on the Apple TV. Open up Settings and go to System > Software Update to get the new software....
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Monday January 27, 2025 10:04 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, the third major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 software that came out last year. iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 come six weeks after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iPadOS 17.7.4 for...
Sunday January 26, 2025 7:52 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple continues to explore the idea of releasing camera-equipped AirPods in the future, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman only briefly mentioned the possibility of AirPods gaining tiny cameras, as part of his Power On newsletter intro this week, focused on Apple's future wearables ambitions. He did not explain what the cameras would be used for.
The tiny cameras would not be...
While this may look like a huge success, it's only short-term. The last "revolutionary" thing Apple created was the iPad, but they failed to update it and continuously keep it fresh. Now, more and more people are switching to alternative tablets.
Now that the iPhone has made a non-revolutionary change by creating a bigger screen and adding unremarkable additions to its iOS (Samsung thought of this over four? years ago). Even Google is surpassing Apple's Siri with Cortana. Really? Google? Does anyone remember how bad it was when it first came out?!
Apple has failed and failed to innovate and now with the iWatch is moving backwards to try and find any niche it can in the market. Apple is a failure and I hope they can get it together fast before all those iPhone users realize this.
This is one of the dumbest comments I have ever read.
First, Cortana is Microsoft not Google. Second, do you really classify a bigger screen as a revolutionary achievement by Samsung?
Apple has failed and failed to innovate and now with the iWatch is moving backwards to try and find any niche it can in the market. Apple is a failure and I hope they can get it together fast before all those iPhone users realize this.
I'm glad you're not managing my tech investments. Or maybe you're just using sarcasm! If so, LOL.
While this may look like a huge success, it's only short-term. The last "revolutionary" thing Apple created was the iPad, but they failed to update it and continuously keep it fresh. Now, more and more people are switching to alternative tablets.
Now that the iPhone has made a non-revolutionary change by creating a bigger screen and adding unremarkable additions to its iOS (Samsung thought of this over four? years ago). Even Google is surpassing Apple's Siri with Cortana. Really? Google? Does anyone remember how bad it was when it first came out?!
Apple has failed and failed to innovate and now with the iWatch is moving backwards to try and find any niche it can in the market. Apple is a failure and I hope they can get it together fast before all those iPhone users realize this.
While this may look like a huge success, it's only short-term. The last "revolutionary" thing Apple created was the iPad, but they failed to update it and continuously keep it fresh. Now, more and more people are switching to alternative tablets.
Now that the iPhone has made a non-revolutionary change by creating a bigger screen and adding unremarkable additions to its iOS (Samsung thought of this over four? years ago). Even Google is surpassing Apple's Siri with Cortana. Really? Google? Does anyone remember how bad it was when it first came out?!
Apple has failed and failed to innovate and now with the iWatch is moving backwards to try and find any niche it can in the market. Apple is a failure and I hope they can get it together fast before all those iPhone users realize this.
I am sure all 800 Million users with switch to Android after reading this.
While this may look like a huge success, it's only short-term. The last "revolutionary" thing Apple created was the iPad, but they failed to update it and continuously keep it fresh. Now, more and more people are switching to alternative tablets.
Now that the iPhone has made a non-revolutionary change by creating a bigger screen and adding unremarkable additions to its iOS (Samsung thought of this over four? years ago). Even Google is surpassing Apple's Siri with Cortana. Really? Google? Does anyone remember how bad it was when it first came out?!
Apple has failed and failed to innovate and now with the iWatch is moving backwards to try and find any niche it can in the market. Apple is a failure and I hope they can get it together fast before all those iPhone users realize this.
Yeah, it's almost like Apple couldn't hold on to greater than 50% of the tablet market all by themselves by only selling the most profitable, higher end models while up against undercutting, race to the bottom, sub-par performing, crap...someone should be fired!!
Samsung thought of what, exactly, 4 years ago? Having a gigantic ass battery on a phone and including a larger screen to cover up the complete lack of power efficiency of the OS? Yes, that's what they "thought of". Also interesting is that Samsung's ads "welcome" Apple to 2012 while trying to ape Apple's 2013 features...and really, they themselves are still stuck in 2012 creating the same Galaxy S series phone over and over again. It's like they're not even trying to change the design, and their sales are slipping...but Apple's the one who's messing up here?
Not sure if you realize the difference between success and failure but when there are now more iPhone users than there were before, it looks like those people buying Android seem to be "falling for it".
