Many iPhone App Downloads Jumped 2-3X On Christmas

Monday, December 27th, 2010

MG Siegler is a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch, where he has been writing since 2009. His focus is on Apple. Prior to TechCrunch, MG covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in... → Learn More

It’s beginning to look like Apple may have had a very, very merry Christmas. Not that it should surprise anyone given how many of their products were on year-end “best-of” lists. But some data that has started to come in over the past few days points to Apple’s Christmas surge once again being led by the mainstays: the iPhone and iPod touch (and probably the iPad as well).

Since yesterday, developers have been tweeting and messaging about huge spikes in downloads of their apps on Christmas. How huge? Just look at the chart in this post. We’re talking two to three times normal numbers. That particular graph came thanks to data from MixPanel, a Y Combinator startup that specializes in iOS analytics. We’ve since confirmed with the company that on the apps they track, they’re seeing the same “2-3x in app download/sales across the board.”

This data point coincides with others, such as Tap Tap Revenge 4, a game for the iPhone/iPod touch, which is seeing download traffic 2x what it was last Christmas, according to Business Insider. Meanwhile, the site All Facebook looked at the data for Facebook’s iPhone app and also found a massive surge on Christmas. In fact, the app added some 1.6 million users in just the three days around Christmas. By comparison, Facebook for Android added some 900,000 users in the same span.

So what does all of this mean? Clearly that a lot of people got new iOS devices for the holidays and went on massive downloading binges. Apple will officially announce their holiday earnings on January 18. Expect a “boom” or two.

Company: Mixpanel
Website: mixpanel.com
Funding: $1.75M

Mixpanel is a real-time analytics service that helps improve internet applications by tracking how users interact & engage with them. Mixpanel’s mission is to help the world learn from their data, by offering a sophisticated analytics platform that companies can use to understand how users behave. Mixpanel performs all of their data analysis in real-time.

Learn more
Product: iPhone
Website: apple.com
Company Apple

Apple’s iPhone was introduced at MacWorld in January 2007 and officially went on sale June 29, 2007, selling 146,000 units within the first weekend of launch. The phone has been hailed as revolutionary with its bundle of advanced mobile web browsing, music and video playback, and touch screen controls. The iPhone is exclusively carried on the networks of both AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. An iPhone can function as a video camera (video recording was not a standard feature...

Learn more

Sponsored Ads

blog comments powered by Disqus

Sponsored Ads

Sponsored Ads

Upcoming Events

SXSW 2012

Austin, Texas

Disrupt NY 2012

New York City

Disrupt SF 2012

San Francisco, CA