Angry Birds continues to be one of the most successful games available on Android and iOS, and despite already racking up more than 1 billion downloads across all platforms, it continues to be a big seller. This Christmas, the surge in Android and iOS sales saw Angry Birds downloads boosted again. In just one week, the title was downloaded more than 30 million times.
Smartphones and tablets have been the hottest Christmas gifts in recent years, and the 2012 holidays were by far the biggest yet for Android and iOS. A new study from mobile analytics firm Flurry has found that a record-breaking 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, leading to an equally record-breaking 328 million app downloads.
If you’re hoping to get a new Android or iOS devices this Christmas, the first thing you’ll want to do is load up their respective app stores and take advantage of the holiday discounts. EA reduced a stack of titles on iOS yesterday, and today Sega has been slashing the prices of its most popular mobile titles. We’ve put together a list of titles on sale — check it out below.
Despite its lack of LTE, the Nexus 4 has been hugely popular.
Google’s new Nexus 4 smartphone has been a hugely popular handset since making its debut back in November, but supply issues have somewhat spoiled what should have been a successful launch. When the handset is made available through Google Play, it doesn’t take long for stock to disappear again, and those who do get an order in on time are forced to wait weeks for their device to arrive.
Dan Cobley, managing director of Google U.K. & Ireland, says the “scarce” supplies from LG are “unacceptable.” He’s issued an “unreserved apology” to Nexus 4 customers, but says Google hopes to fulfill “pre-Christmas” delivery promises by sending out a new batch of handsets this week.
Christmas is nearly here, and with it comes the snapping of a million never-to-be shared photos. So, instead of promising your friends and family that you’ll e-mail pictures, or trying to teach your mom how to use shared Photo Streams, or dicking around with SD cards and sneakernet, why not just make some good, old-fashioned prints?
And don’t worry – you won’t have to touch a computer.
If you’re buying your kid(s) a Kindle tablet this Christmas, then it may be worth checking out Kindle FreeTime, a new, “all-you-can-eat” subscription service from Amazon that’s designed specifically for those aged between three and eight. It provides unlimited access to apps, books, games, movies, and TV shows that are all curated for “age-appropriateness,” with content from the likes of DC Comics, Disney, Marvel, Nickelodeon, and more.
Google began selling its new Nexus 4 through the U.K. Google Play Store on Tuesday night, much to the delight of Android users who are itching to get hold of the company’s latest smartphone. The only problem is, there’s a 5-6 week shipping delay. That means your hopes of bagging the handset this side of Christmas are gone.
We’ve already heard about the record breaking Android and iOS device activations on Christmas day, but how many of those were Android devices? According to a few social media posts made by Andy Rubin, that number is — 3.7 million! Assuming that number is correct (and I’m sure it is), that would mean that of the total 6.8 million devices activated on Christmas day, 3.7 million of them were Android devices. That leaves us with 3.1 million iOS devices also activated on Christmas day, leaving Android and iOS considerably close, in terms of holiday activations. These are certainly numbers that both companies should be proud of.
Christmas day has historically been a record shattering day in terms of new device activations and app downloads. This Christmas was no different according to these recent stats published by Flurry Analytics. Using a baseline average taken from the first 20 days of December, Flurry showed that new Android and iOS device activations rose 353% on Christmas day. While averaging around 1.5 million activations during the month of December, activations jumped to more than 6.8 million on Christmas day. Ho, ho, ho — ly rising reindeer! That’s a staggering increase and to get a better feel for just how impressive those numbers are, only 2.8 million devices were activated last Christmas day.
With Christmas only two days away, nothing is more exciting for a child than the newer aged tradition of tracking his whereabouts on Christmas Eve. A program that started back in the mid 1950’s has evolved into more than just calling in to get Santa’s location. We can now track his real-time progress via sophisticated Santa tracking instruments developed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The media on which we’ve been tracking Santa has evolved throughout the years and now that the mobile age is upon us, it only makes sense to have an official app.