Apple accounted for nearly half of leading mobile devices activated during the 2017 holiday season to once again pace the global market, according to the latest study from Flurry Analytics.
Flurry, part of Verizon subsidiary Oath, found that 44 percent of the smartphones and tablets activated between Dec. 19 and Dec. 25 were Apple devices — the same percentage found in its 2016 report.
The tech giant was boosted by the launch of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X this year, but the iPhone 6 and 7 led the company’s activations in the week leading up to Christmas at about 15 percent, with the iPhone X following at 14.7 percent.
Flurry analysts attributed the older models’ performances to their affordability and availability in overseas markets.
“It’s apparent that the consumer concern for cost is still significant, as the iPhone 6 is often marketed as the most affordable option in the regions where it is available,” analysts Chris Klotzbach and Lali Kesiraju wrote in a blog post.
Samsung, the global smartphone market leader, trailed Apple with 26 percent of holiday-season activations in 2017, up from 21 percent the year before. The report noted that Samsung issued its Galaxy S8 this year while last year’s data coincided with a high-profile device recall.
No other company identified in the survey collected more than 5 percent of recent activations. The remaining six manufacturers — Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola, LG, OPPO and newcomer Vivo — build affordable Android devices.
Google, which launched its Pixel 2 smartphone this year, was nowhere to be found on the 2017 list.
“It is safe to say that due to limited phone models (4) and lack of consumer mindshare, the Pixel is failing to pique users’ interest,” analysts wrote.
The Flurry report also found that phablets overtook medium phones as most-activated device segment by a margin of 53 percent to 35 percent. Full size-tablets and small tablets accounted for 8 percent and 4 percent of activations, respectively, while small phones, which accounted for 1 percent in each of the past two years, dropped off the survey entirely.
