The Christmas holiday saw a record number of activations for devices based on Google's Android and Apple's iOS, according to a web metric firm I'd never previously heard of. But Google confirmed its own success, saying that it activated millions of new devices over Christmas. For Apple, all we have to go on for now is an estimate.
According to a firm called Flurry, combined activations of Android and iOS devices on Christmas Day was 6.8 million units. This compare to an estimated 1.5 million activations on any normal day, the firm claims.
I can't vouch for Flurry or its numbers. But assuming the numbers are correct, we can extrapolate based on Google's published Android numbers to see how well the platforms are doing in relation to each other. Google's Android head, Andy Rubin, has previously claimed that the firm is activating over 700,000 Android devices every day. So on a typical day, according to Flurry, Apple is activating roughly the same number.
Rubin also claimed, via Twitter, that Google activated 3.7 million Android devices on Christmas. So if Flurry's numbers are correct, Apple activated about 3.1 million devices.
Whatever the actual numbers, it's pretty clear that the mobile market has evolved into a three horse race involving Apple, Google, and "everyone else." And while Flurry rather bogusly says it can "detect roughly 100 percent of all new iOS and Android devices activated each day," which is ludicrous, I think I can state with similar certainty that Apple's iOS and Google's Android accounted for roughly 100 percent of all new devices activated on Christmas Day.
Trust me, I know math.
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