Flurry: Apple Dominates Holiday Shopping Season

According to Flurry Insights iDevices account for 49.1% of mobile device activations during the 2015 holiday season, at least as based on the 780000 apps tracked by the mobile analytics firm.

Flurry Insights mobiles

The figure is down from the 51.3% seen in 2014, but still shows Apple as a clear winner-- in comparison 2nd placing Samsung claims 19.8% share, up from 17.7% in 2014 thanks to strong Galaxy Grand Prime, Core Prime and S6 sales. Meanwhile Microsoft Lumia loses share as it drops from 5.8% to 2%, and LG follows at 1.7%.

China's Xiaomi beats Sony to make it to the top 5 for the first time with 1.5% share.

Flurry Insights analytics

Flurry also provides insight on the kinds of devices customers prefer to buy-- and says phablets are "here to stay." 27% of activated handsets are of the large screen variety, a dramatic increase from 4% just 2 years ago. Back then analyst worried phablets would cannibalise into tablet sales, but in actual fact customers appear to prefer larger displays, since 3.5-inch smartphones are all but extinct (with just 1% 2015 share).

One factor driving phablet adoption is, perhaps obviously, the iPhone 6s. Another is the popularity of the Samsung Galaxy Note and its various imitators, leading to phablets accounting for 50% of activated Android devices.

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