iOS vs. Android: comparing Christmas activation numbers

It depends on how you count the numbers (doesn't it always?) but it looks like iOS won Christmas day activations by a hefty 1.6 million units.

The info comes from Flurry Analytics, who reports that iOS and Android together added 6.9 million devices on Christmas Day, a 353 percent increase from Christmas 2010. The data is also based on tweets from Google's Andy Rubin.

The increased iOS activations are probably due to the iPad and iPod touch. Of course, all these numbers are educated guesswork, and the numbers don't include Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The study also noted app downloads for both iOS and Android doubled during Christmas Day, as all those new smartphones loaded up on new software.

Expect to see some hard numbers from Apple when it reports on its first fiscal quarter next month.

[via Fortune Tech]

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Source: http://blog.flurry.com/bid/79682/iOS-Android-Shatter-Records…

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It depends on how you count the numbers (doesn't it always?) but it looks like iOS won Christmas day activations by a hefty 1.6 million...

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This report makes no sense.

December 29 2011 at 8:40 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

Holden Monaro

& if you spin the numbers, cite other reports, mix the numbers together & wash, you can come up with whatever answer your looking for.
apple doesn't announce activations.
google's numbers only include new 1st activations of phones.
kindle fire uses a custom amazon android but not the licensed android market which excludes it from android numbers.

December 29 2011 at 8:10 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

Andre Schmidt

6,9 million total minus 3,7 million android make 3,2 million ios..... why should ios won with 1,6 million?

December 29 2011 at 8:03 AM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Andre Schmidt's comment

Henri Laukka

That's exactly what I was wondering.

How did you come up to the conclusion that more iOS devices were activated, Mel? Cause the way I see it, your numbers don't match.

"It depends on how you count the numbers (doesn't it always?)" No. No it doesn't. Activations are activations.

December 29 2011 at 11:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

wonderful

You folks going to read what the report actually said, or what you want it to say?

The 6.9M total was for Christmas day. The 3.7M total for Android included 1.1M on Christmas Eve, leaving 2.6M on Christmas day. Ergo, 4.2M iOS devices (conservatively, allowing for rounding error), or 1.6M more than Android.

I'm not sure I agree with the dubious reasoning here, but at least I know how to read.

December 29 2011 at 2:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to wonderful's comment

dorjesyber

This is an assumption on Philip Elmer-DeWitt part. There is no way with the data presented to actually arrive at that break down. I'm with you on it being very dubious.

Additionally I'm not sure the Fire is excluded or not. As it is based in Android and would be getting may of the same Apps that embed Flurry Analytics reporting software they should have show up in the reporting data.

All in all both Flurry Analytics, CNNs rather lame report, and this rebog it don't amount to much more the vinegar bring substituted for piss in the iOS vs Android contest. The only thing we can say for sure is that way more people picked up mobile devices this Christmas then last.

December 29 2011 at 4:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down

Andre Schmidt

First of all, the 6,8M are all activations, the 3,7M from Rubin are ONLY 3G-devices and the 6,8M devices are also without devices without google-market-acess. So this numbers say.... nothing.

December 30 2011 at 3:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down

Wayne AKA Funky!

Activations meaning PHONES or combined phones/tablets/mp3 players?

December 29 2011 at 7:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Wayne AKA Funky!'s comment

Logger76

With Android it refers only to phones (with active cellular subscriptions), while iOS numbers usually includes all iOS devices since Apple does not differentiate between its devices.

December 30 2011 at 11:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply