According to a study by mobile analytics company Flurry, 2012’s holiday week (December 25 – 31) shattered records this year in terms of iOS and Android app downloads, passing 1.76 billion in total over the course of just six days. That 1.76 billion figure breaks previous records by 560 million downloads, as 1.2 billion apps were downloaded in 2011’s holiday week.
As far as where 2012’s 1.76 billion app downloads occurred, the US is holding the lead once again, this time with 604 million downloads — up from 509 million in 2011.
That in mind, the US’ 2012 share only makes up 34.3% of app downloads, down from more than 42% in 2011. In other words, app downloads are unsurprisingly up, but growth is occurring faster internationally than it is in the States.
The chart below compares the number of estimated total app downloads of previous weeks in December 2012 with the final Christmas week — a period known for mass device activations, and thus, an overload of downloads.
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Interestingly, when comparing these record breaking stats to the previous 2011 record, a ~60% rise in app downloads remained persistent across both years.
As with all third-party studies, these figures must be taken with a grain of salt. Although Flurry claims it can “reliably estimate total iOS and Android downloads,” it will never be as accurate as official numbers from Apple and Google. Unfortunately for us, however, both companies will likely remain quiet, and so we’ll have to rely on outside stats to point us in the right direction.
Image credit: Thinkstock / John Foxx
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