Apple's Christmas gift -- app downloads jump 87 percent
Apple certainly enjoyed a jolly Christmas, at least to judge from its App Store downloads.Data out yesterday from mobile analytics firm Distimo revealed an 87 percent jump in iPhone and iPad app downloads on Christmas Day as compared with the average for the month. Sales from all those downloads rose by 70 percent on December 25. The iPad seemed to be an especially popular gift this season, according to Distimo. App downloads for Apple's tablet lineup grew by 140 percent on Christmas compared to the monthly average, while revenue for iPad apps shot up by 83 percent.Related stories'Twas a holly jolly Christmas for smartphones, tablets, and appsRetail sites see 27 percent traffic jump on Christmas DayAmazon again tops in e-tail customer satisfaction; Apple slipsAmong the ten most downloaded iOS apps on Christmas Day, YouTube took first place, followed by Google Maps, ElfYourself by OfficeMax, Where's My Holiday? from Disney, and Skype for the iPad.Rounding out the bottom half were Subway Surfers, Flow Free, Furby, Instagram, and Emoji & Unicode Icons.Christmas rang in good cheer for smartphones, tablets, and apps in general.A new report from fellow mobile analytics firm Flurry found that device activations surged to 17.4 million on Christmas Day from 4 million on average for the month, a gain of 332 percent. Overall app downloads doubled on Christmas compared with the December average, as device owners download 20 million apps per hour.
