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Apple’s new handsets helped it dominate Christmas period

iphone 6 plus help make happy christmas apple vs screen comparison
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Apple had a bumper Christmas this year with its devices accounting for more than half of all activations globally, according to Flurry data.

The mobile analytics firm found that Apple smartphones and tablets accounted for 51.3 percent of all device activations from December 19 to 25, a figure almost three times greater than that of Samsung, which reached 17.7 percent. Microsoft came in third with a 5.8 percent share, thanks mainly to Lumia devices.

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“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,” Flurry’s Jarah Euston wrote in a post Monday, adding that after Microsoft, only LG and Sony managed to achieve a market share in excess of 1 percent across the 7-day period.

Flurry arrived at its numbers by analyzing data from downloads linked to the 600,000 apps it tracks.

flurry data dec 2014
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Euston said that despite this year’s holiday season proving somewhat lackluster for tech manufacturers in terms of sales, the newly released iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets helped Apple to score big in December.

Additionally, Christmas saw a significant increase in the number of phablets activated globally, with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus helping to drive the figure.

“In the week leading up to Christmas, 13 percent of new device activations were phablets compared to just 4 percent in 2013,” Euston wrote, adding, “In fact, the iPhone 6 Plus was one of the top 5 devices Flurry saw activated for Christmas; the iPhone 6 was number 1.” Flurry defines a phablet as a device with a screen size of between 5 and 6.9 inches.

Euston also noted that the phablet’s increasing share of the market appears to come at the expense of full-sized tablets and to a lesser extent small tablets.

If you happen to have got your hands on a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus this holiday season, take a moment to check out some of our suggestions for accessories to go with your new Apple smartphone.

[Source: Flurry]

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)…
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