Apple Dominates New Mobile Device Activations

On the basis of hardware sales alone, Americans love Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) mobile devices. Of all new devices activated in the week ending on Christmas Day, Apple accounted for 49.1%, more than double the share of second-place Samsung Electronics.

And the breakdown of device sales for Apple is also instructive. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Apple’s device sales were medium-size smartphones, according to data published by research firm Flurry on Monday night. Another 12% of the company’s sales are categorized as phablets (iPhone 6 and 6s Plus), while 9% of sales were small tablets and 14% were large tablets, including the new iPad Pro.

Among Android-based devices, 50% of activations came on phablets, 35% on medium-size phones, 10% on small tablets, 3% on small smartphones and 2% on large tablets.

Flurry observes:

Back in 2013, only 4% of new device activations during the week leading up to Christmas were phablets. Fast forward two years and a whopping 27% of all new devices were phablets. That’s doubling share in only 12 months! … For the first time in 2015 …, it appears consumers are opting for phablets- not instead of a tablet- but instead of a smaller-sized phone.

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Trailing (far) behind Apple and Samsung in mobile device sales were Nokia with a 2% share, LG Electronics with a 1.7% share and Xiaomi with a 1.5% share. Nokia — actually Microsoft — lost share year-over-year, dropping from 5.8% in 2014. Sony dropped out of the top five altogether, replaced by Xiaomi, the Chinese maker that has plans to enter the U.S. market next year.