Samsung

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.

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.

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. COVID-19 has left many unemployed, reduced retail foot traffic, and forced Americans to simply stay home, leaving retailers scrambling to prepare for a largely digital December.

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. 

Samsung and Apple dominate the smartphone industry globally. Combined, they control more than half the total market share on the planet. In most regions of the world, either Apple or Samsung is the top vendor. While Apple leads in its home market of North America, Samsung tends to lead elsewhere. In this report, Flurry looks at the global market share by active user base. While most market share analyses estimate device shipments or sales, Flurry directly measures what phones are in use today.

Gen Z and Millennials have grown up with mobile technology at their fingertips. Most don’t use landlines, or even cameras aside from the ones on their phones. Representing nearly half the population, and the bulk of consumer spending, major smartphone manufacturers are in a battle for their loyalty. In this report, we compare consumer demographics of Samsung and Apple smartphone users.

The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day in the United States is the most prolific for device activations, app downloads and app usage. A wave of new devices flood the market as phones are given as gifts during the holiday season, followed by consumers loading them up with apps.

Christmas Day in the United States is the single greatest day of the year for new device activations. For Apple, in a maturing U.S. smartphone market in which Samsung continues to take share, Christmas has also become a battleground. 

With its stronghold in the United States, Apple iPhone sales during Christmas are nothing short of critical for the company’s continued success. In this report, Flurry evaluates the iPhone 11 launch, from September up through the first week of December.