- Apple (AAPL -0.4%) hardware accounted for 51.3% of the Christmas mobile device activations tracked by leading app analytics firm Flurry, according to data pulled from 600K+ apps. #2 Samsung accounted for 17.7%, and #3 Nokia (Microsoft) 5.8%.
- One caveat: The U.S., where the iPhone and the iPad claim outsized smartphone and tablet shares, accounts for a large percentage of both Christmas phone/tablet gifting and Flurry's app tracking. Thus, China's Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo, each of whom had ~5% Q3 global smartphone unit shares (per Gartner), had sub-1% device activation shares.
- Nonetheless, with Kantar respectively pegging the iPhone's U.S. and EU5 shares for the August-October period at 41.5% and 20.7%, the data points to strong holiday iPhone 6 demand in the U.S. and Europe. Flurry: "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."
- SA author J.M. Manness provides an analysis of Flurry's numbers, as well as Fiksu's iPhone model tracking data.
- Prior iPhone sales commentary: Morgan Stanley, UBS, Pac Crest/Deutsche