Apple Devices Dominate Holiday Giving
by Gavin O’Malley@mp_gavin, December 28, 2016,
What types of mobile gifts were people unwrapping, this holiday season?
Well, 44% of new phone and tablet activations were Apple devices, according to fresh Flurry findings.
During the same holiday period — the dates of Christmas and Chanukah were nearly in sync — Samsung claimed only a fifth (21%) of the activation pie.
While Samsung is slowly growing in popularity throughout the holiday season — up 1% from last year — Apple devices continue to be the gift to give, according to the Yahoo-owned research firm.
Holding the third and fourth positions for activations are Huawei and LG. This fact is actually remarkable, Chris Klotzbach, director at Flurry, and Lali Kesiraju, marketing and analytics manager at Flurry, believe.
As for why, they explain in a new blog post: “Both manufacturers do not have an individual device within the top 35 devices activated.”
“Their high rank is likely due to the fact they have wide variety of devices and affordable options (hundreds of phablet and medium phones) for consumers to choose from,” the colleagues write.
Also of note, Google’s new Pixel smartphone didn’t even make Flurry’s list this year — a finding that didn’t surprise Klotzbach and Kesiraju.
“With only two devices, the Pixel and Pixel XL, and mixed market reception, Google struggled to drum up excitement this holiday season,” they explain.
More broadly, phablet devices — 5 to 6.9 inches in length — continue to chip away at the market share of medium-sized phones — 3.5 to 4.9 inches in length.
While medium phones saw the most activations during the week leading up to the holidays, phablets continue to increase their holiday share — to the detriment of medium-sized phones. Tablet device activations have stabilized and are relatively flat, year-over-year.
“This indicates that users find purpose for their purchase, albeit the devices cater to more niche use,” according to Klotzbach and Kesiraju.
In addition, the increasing number of phablets activated year-over-year falls in line with Flurry’s earlier forecast that they will be the dominant form factor at the end of 2016.
MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily
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