You might think that the headline of this article is a no-brainer due to Samsung's very awful year, thanks in no small part to the Galaxy Note7 fiasco. However, according to Flurry Analytics, while Apple dominated the holiday shopping season with an overall 44% of new activations, Samsung managed to chalk up 21%, up 1% from the same (Dec 19 - Dec 25) period last year.
In addition, holding third and fourth place for activations in the above chart are Huawei and LG, which Flurry cites as "remarkable", since both manufacturers don't have a single individual device within the top 35 devices activated. Their high rank is explained due to the fact that they have wide variety of devices and affordable options available, such as multiple phablet and medium phones for consumers to choose from.
Also notably missing from the above chart is Google, which began offering its Pixel and Pixel XL this year. Despite pre-orders for the phones opening well before the holiday season, but also maybe due to the apparent difficulty in scoring the new handsets. It appears that they haven't done enough to excite consumers, something we agreed on with our review of the Pixel XL.
Lastly, as is evident in the above chart, phablets continue to eat away at the "Medium Phones" pie, rising to an overall 37% of activations, a 10% jump over 2015. However, Flurry classes a phablet between the 5 and 6.9-inch range; most, if not all flagships this year shipped with a 5-inch screen or more, so that's hardly surprising. Medium phones dropped 9% but remained the largest at 45% of new activations, while full-size tablets stabilized year-on-year at 9%.
It's important to note that Flurry tracks new activations, not sales. Until the respective manufacturers release sales figures, it's unknown how many devices actually made it over the counter in the US this holiday season. But according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, it's been a "great holiday" period.
Source: Flurry Analytics via CNBC
66 Comments - Add comment