2011 went out with quite a bang, at least as far as mobile apps are concerned. According to the latest data from Flurry, the week of December 25-31st saw a record-breaking 1.2 billion apps downloaded between iOS and Android.
This represents a 60 percent increase over every week in December leading up to Christmas, and marks the first time ever that mobile apps broke the billion download barrier in a single weak, indicating that the mobile movement continues to grow at an incredible pace.
For background, the third full Sunday-to-Saturday week, not shown in the chart, December 18 – 24, is elevated slightly due primarily to December 24 downloads. Up until the final week of the year, this penultimate week set the download record with 857 million downloads. The final week of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, grew by 60% over the early-December baseline, historically punching through the billion download barrier for the first time ever to deliver 1.2 billion downloads.
2011 marked a serious year for both smartphones and tablets, with the iPhone and iPad poised as priority gifts under last year’s Christmas trees. This incredible download rate also speaks strongly about consumer demand for apps, namely that it’s increasing tremendously as more apps become available, as as they become easier to find and download.