Apple’s iPhones and iPads led in new device adoption over Christmas, according to Localytics. The analytics and marketing platform says “we discovered that Christmas shoppers were heavily focused on obtaining Apple products this year: iPads have become a mainstay of the holiday season and the iPhone Xr’s momentum shows no sign of decreasing.”
So much for reports that the Xr is a sales bust. Localytics determines the increase in device activations by calculating percent change in new devices in the days surrounding Christmas compared with new devices in the average week for the same time period.
In 2016 they found that iPads dominated the leaderboards for new device activations over the Christmas holiday, while in 2017 the Google Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X took the top five. In 2018, iPads returned to the top of the list as they nearly swept the top five.
As the newest iPhone (the XrR) was released in late October prior to Black Friday, it seemed to be the most likely candidate for a market takeover. However, Localytics found that it saw more new device activations than any other device over Black Friday weekend compared to the average of previous weekends. This narrative partially played out in their Christmas data as well, “confirming the demand for iPhones at a lower price point.”
Still, the Xr failed to beat the newest iPad, iPad Pro, and the aging iPad mini. The new sixth generation (9.7-inch) iPad clearly saw the greatest increase in activation volume at 219%, while the 11-inch iPad Pro came in at second with a 125% increase versus the prior weeks in December.
