These days, as smartphones and tablets are more affordable and ubiquitous than ever, connected devices make for very popular Christmas gifts. To find out which types of devices were most in demand during the holiday season, app analytics firm Flurry Analytics has been analyzing new device activation during the holiday period for the past few years.
According to this year's data, Apple was the big winner this holiday season. iPhones and iPads accounted for 44 percent of all new device activations between December 19 and 25, with Samsung coming in second at 21 percent of activations.
Once again, large-screen smartphones, so-called phablets, proved particularly popular under the Christmas tree. They accounted for 37 percent of new device activations this holiday season, up from 27 percent last year and just 13 percent in 2014. Once derided as clunky niche devices, larger phones such as the Galaxy Note or the iPhone 7 Plus have quickly become the first choice for millions of smartphone users around the world.
This chart breaks down new device activations in the 2016 holiday season by screen size.
