And for those that absolutely have to have those who beat who stats...

[rockymtnhigh]

It was a banner Christmas for both Apple and Google in terms of activations of new units..

3.7m for Android, perhaps as high as 4.2m for iOS (Apple not releasing numbers, the story below makes assumptions about sales).

Apple iOS Christmas activations likely beat Android by 1.6 million | Apple - CNET News

Android, iOS Devices Have ‘Record-Shattering’ Holiday Sales | Techland | TIME.com

And for those who need charts:
The Flurry Blog - Mobile Application Analytics | iPhone Analytics | Android Analytics


Seems to me there are two winners - both Android and Apple iOS. No matter how you cut it, that's a LOT OF phones and tablets being activated on one day. I suspect that iOS' number also include iPods.

 

[Hall]

What is the definition of "activation" ? The CNet article doesn't give any explanation.

To me, it really ties into phones, be they iPhones or Android phones. How do you "activate" an iPod or a non-phone Android tablet ?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Good point. You don't activate an iPod, you turn it on, and set it up, and usually include an Apple ID in that process, which could be considered an activation. The same way you with an iPad. But I suspect you are right, dealing with phones.

 

[mike123abc]

An activation of a tablet is probably the act of tying it to an account (itunes or android market).

Once they have the ability to buy something online with it, it is activated.

 

[Hall]

You don't even have to do the Apple ID part, at least not until you try and access the App Store. Same thing with Android how you can skip the "sign-in" step (and have no access to the Market).

Does an iPod (non-touch, i.e. Nano, Classic, Shuffle, etc) run "iOS" ? I know the iPad and iPod Touch do. The TIME article does mention iPads and iPod Touch, "we land at 3.8 million Apple iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices activated on December 25".

As you say though, for those who [strike]care[/strike] get hung up about numbers, they'll either run with it (Apple) or they'll dispute it (Android)

 

[John Kotches]

Hall:

Yes, they all run iOS, as does the later rev of the AppleTV.

 

[lparsons21]

I don't think any of the non-touch ipods runs iOS.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Hall:

Yes, they all run iOS, as does the later rev of the AppleTV.

The Apple TV version is a very different beast though.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

NYTimes article today about mobile app downloads on Christmas day.

http://nyti.ms/sGLJ9h

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[JAG72]

I don't think any of the non-touch ipods runs iOS.

Me either but I really never looked into it

 

[Foxbat]

All I know is it took two and a half hours to get my wife's new iPad 2 activated because iTunes/Apple Store was timing out trying to get everything set up. I had thought about doing it a few days earlier, but I went with the sealed package on Christmas morning instead.

What's weird is my son's new iPod Touch took maybe a minute to connect to his iTunes account and ten minutes to sync his apps, audio, and video content. But I did that a lot earlier than I did the iPad.