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tis the season

Christmas Day sees spike in app downloads but overall growth is slowing

While the number of apps downloaded was higher than last year, year-on-year growth is beginning to decrease.

WITH CHRISTMAS USUALLY the time when people get new smartphones and tablets, it’s also the busiest time for app downloads.

While this year saw another overall increase, growth is beginning to slow down according to findings from two app analytics companies.

Flurry Analytics found that after it analysed 400,000 apps, downloads increased by 91 per cent on Christmas Day compared to an average day in December.

However, when compared to previous years, this spike in downloads is decreasing slowly.

image(Image: Flurry Analytics)

When it looked at mobile alone, it saw that app downloads increased by 11 per cent on Christmas in comparison to 2012, and by 25 per cent on an average December day.

While a large number of apps were downloaded on Christmas Day, the rate in which this is grown has gotten smaller. When compared to 2011, app downloads in 2012 had increased by 90 per cent on Christmas Day and by 97 per cent on an average December day.

image(Image: Flurry Analytics)

The second company Distimo found similar results when it looked at the Apple App store. It found the number of downloads rose by 53 per cent and the amount of revenue increased by 56 per cent when compared to an average day in December.

This spike coincided with a number of major apps such as Angry Birds Go! and Cut The Rope 2 being released in time for the Christmas period.

image(Image: Distimo)

Similar to Flurry, it found that the overall download figure had decreased when compared to previous years. In 2012, the store saw download figures double and revenue increase by 70 per cent while 2011 saw download figures increase threefold.

Both have attributed this to more people already having smartphones and tablets, meaning that fewer people are going online for the first time. Because of this, users already have a number of favourite apps downloaded, and aren’t as keen to download new apps.

Read: 26 of the best smartphone apps from 2013 >

Read: 5 sports apps to download this Christmas >

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