Data: 9 Out Of 10 Christmas Activations Were Older Model iPhones

iPhones dominated the Christmas Day market for new phone activations, according to a report from Cult of Mac.

The Apple favorites represented nine out of 10 handset activations, with the very last on the list being the lone Android, the report said, citing market analysts.

That didn’t mean they were all the newest Apple model, though. The top sellers were the older, more affordable models.

Lisa Moshfegh, a Flurry Analytics analyst, said in a blog post that Christmas Day was “the single greatest day” for new smartphone activations, per the report.

However, the pandemic caused a 23 percent drop in activations compared to the same time last year, with the post noting one reason could have been financial difficulties, the report stated. Others, according to the analyses, could have been chalked up to more spread-out gifting because of the conditions this year.

The iPhone 11, which was debuted in 2019, was the most-activated phone on Christmas Day this year, Flurry said in the post. In second place was the iPhone XR, which debuted in 2018. After that were two handsets from 2020, the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12, which came in third and fourth place, respectively. The iPhone SE took sixth place, while the iPhone 12 Pro came in seventh.

Apple reported high demand for the iPhone 12, according to PYMNTS, surpassing the demand for the iPhone 11. The tech giant sold up to 2 million on the first day, an improvement on the 800,000 iPhone 11s sold on the first day. Demand in China contributed to that, a report from Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities said.

As Apple stopped reporting sales figures for the iPhone in 2018, the Kuo report offered rare insight. The iPhone 12 Pro comes with a better camera than the base model and both are able to use China’s 5G capabilities.

The support for the 5G speeds could be a driving factor for the iPhone going forward, PYMNTS reported, after coming later to the game than some rivals. Samsung, for example, had devices with next-gen wireless already. But the opportunity could be once-in-a-lifetime for Apple, according to analysts.