Flurry has released its annual report on the state of app downloads over Christmas for 2013, and the mobile analytics and ad company found that, as usual, consumers downloaded apps like crazy after they unwrapped their new mobile devices, but Flurry does note that the spike is starting to wane year-over-year.
App downloads broke records yet again for 2013, with an 11 percent improvement over total Christmas Day downloads in 2012. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to past year-over-year increases.
Between 2011 and 2012, downloads on Christmas jumped by 90%, and increased 97% for the entire month of December year-over-year. Growth this year was a mere 11% from 2012 to 2013 for the holiday, and 25% for the month of December.
Flurry believes the slow down can be attributed to the smartphone and tablet markets in developed countries reaching a maturation point. They point to a potential “growth ceiling” on mobile device sales in markets where the devices have been on sale for nearly a decade.
While Christmas day downloads were up 91% when compared to an average day earlier in the month, it is way down from the previous years of 2011 and 2012, where Christmas Day saw more than a twofold increase in app downloads versus previous days in the month of December.
There are other possible reasons for the plateauing of app downloads, which includes the possibility that users are more used to the idea of an app store, and buy their mobile software throughout the year, rather than on the single day of the year when their geek relatives are around to walk them thru the process.
