Can you guess the only phone among the top ten activated in the U.S. on Xmas that was not an iPhone?
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Apparently, Santa and his elves prefer iOS to Android. According to research firm Flurry Analytics, the top nine devices activated on Christmas day in the U.S. were all iPhone models led by last year's iPhone 11. Overall, Christmas day smartphone activations were down 23% year-over-year. The decline is being blamed on the hit to the American economy caused by the COVID-19 virus. Traditionally, Chirstmas day is the largest single day for new smartphone activations. Flurry forecast a difficult December which was not a surprise considering the 7% unemployment rate in the states and the lower than usual number of November activations.
If you take a look at the the chart Flurry produced, you can see the names of the top 10 phones activated on Christmas day. A gray dotted line marks the seven-day moving average of activations leading up to Christmas day. The green or red number shows whether the number of Christmas Day activations for a specific phone was higher than the one week moving average of activations (green) or if the activations on Christmas day were lower than the recent average (red).
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For example, based on the chart, for the second consecutive year the iPhone 11 was the most activated phone on Christmas day. Activations on December 25th were 5% higher than the average number of iPhone 11 units switched on from December 18th to December 24th. The ten most activated phones in the U.S. on Christmas day included:
- Apple iPhone 11
- Apple iPhone XR
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Apple iPhone 12
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
- Apple iPhone SE (2020)
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro
- Apple iPhone 8 Plus
- Apple iPhone 8
- LG K30
The largest hike in Christmas day activations compared to the average during the week before was the 181% gain chalked up by the LG K300. Three iPhone models saw the number of units turned on during Christmas day decline compared to the number turned on during the week before Christmas. Those models were the iPhone 11 Pro Max (-6%), iPhone 8 Plus (-9%), and the iPhone 8 (-7%).
For the second consecutive year, the iPhone 11 is the most activated phone in the U.S. on Christmas day
The weak U.S. economy caused by the pandemic was surely part of the reason why two budget phones did well on Christmas day. The iPhone SE (2020) and the LG K300 saw activations rise 34% and 181%. Flurry noted that "Typically, Apple’s highest-end devices surge at launch as early adopters rush out to buy the most advanced Apple smartphone available. As the masses slowly replace their old devices, the base model—this year the iPhone 12—typically gains in popularity...the iPhone 12 Pro Max had the strongest launch week out of any Apple iPhone device in the past three years, indicating a strong and long-lasting demand for their most premium smartphone."
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