Apple

December is by far the highest month for new device activations in the United States. Elevated device activations begin around Black Friday, peak on Christmas Day and remain elevated through New Year’s Day. Combined, this forms an extended, appreciable wave of new smartphone activations across the month. In this report, we share how December 2020 smartphone activations fared against the backdrop of slumping retail sales during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

Christmas day in the United States is the single greatest day for new smartphone activations. And despite supply chain delays caused by COVID-19, Apple launched its iPhone 12 line—complete with four 5G-enabled devices—just in time for the holidays.

2020 has surfaced the importance that technology plays in society. Since the beginning of the pandemic, digital technology has enabled people to work remotely, attend classes, play social games, shop, leverage virtual assistants, and more. All told, the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation by several years and will endure long after the pandemic is over.

While 2020 will mostly be remembered for COVID-19, it was also a year of tremendous resilience. Teachers and schools around the world transitioned from in-class learning to full-time distance learning in a matter of weeks. Workers created home offices and took to meeting on Zoom instead of in conference rooms. People found ways to exercise outside of the gym with apps and peripherals like Peloton. And the mobile industry is poised for meaningful transformation in 2021.

The holiday season in the U.S. between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a critical sales period for smartphone manufacturers. From 2016 to 2018, the last three years Apple disclosed unit sales, the company sold well over one-third of its iPhones during the last quarter of each year. And while the stakes are just as high this year, the pandemic has strongly impacted the economy.

Apple is changing the information required to submit new apps and app updates to the app store effective December 8, 2020. The new submission process will give users transparency about app data usage via a new privacy details section of an app’s product page in the app store. This  “nutrition label” will also include data used by third-party partners integrated  into an app.

On October 13, 2020, in a highly anticipated launch event, Apple introduced its newest iPhone models, the iPhone 12 series. For the first time ever, Apple launched four devices that differ by size, price and features, including the first ever iPhone 12 mini at 5.4 inches. The devices launched in two waves: the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro on October 23, and the iPhone 12 mini and 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max on November 13.

Earlier this month, more than one billion people in India as well as expatriates across the world celebrated the festival of Diwali. Best known as the Festival of Lights, Diwali is marked by family gatherings, fireworks and prayer, and is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India. Over the years, the weeks leading up to Diwali have become the most important holiday shopping season in the country with people splurging on gadgets, clothes, appliances, jewelry, and more.

Apple and Samsung together account for more than half of the world’s active smartphone install base, and are clearly the leaders of the OEM smartphone market. But if we take a closer look at how they each earn their market share, there are remarkable differences. This Flurry report takes a closer look at Apple versus Samsung market share, the number of products each company has in the market, top devices in the top 20 countries, and more. 

When Apple launches its annual line-up of new iPhones each Fall, it creates a surge in device adoption that spans the holiday season. Since the 2017 launch of the completely reimagined iPhone X, improvements to subsequent phones have been incremental, offering gains mainly related to the chipset, camera and screen. Since then Apple has released the iPhone XS and XR variants, the iPhone 11 line up and the 2nd Generation iPhone SE. The iPhone 12, coupled with 5G support, seems poised for stronger than usual uptake.