Android, Apple iOS Activations Abound This Christmas

That 6.8 million figure comes from mobile application analysis firm Flurry, which said the Christmas 2011 activations of Android and Apple iOS devices handily bested the previous Christmas Day totals. Christmas 2010 saw 2.8 million device activations, which at the time was a single-day record, according to Flurry. The 6.8 million activations this year is a 140 percent increase over the previous record.

And it wasn't just Flurry tracking the activity. Even Google chimed in on its record Android activations this holiday season. In a brief, yet impactful, Twitter post, Google Senior Vice President Andy Rubin wrote "There were 3.7 [million] Android devices activated on [December 24] and [December 25]." Rubin noted on December 20 that the daily number of Android activations had reached 700,000.

Apple has not officially released the number of iOS devices activated during the holidays this year.

Flurry's 6.8 million estimate is also a gigantic increase, 353 percent, over the average number of Android and iOS devices activated daily in the first 20 days of December, which Flurry estimated was 1.5 million.

Flurry did not break down how many of the 6.8 million activations went to each operating system.

Along with gauging the number of devices activated, Flurry also examined the numbers of apps downloaded for both Android and iOS devices on December 25. Flurry estimated that 242 million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day, a jump of 125 percent over the 108 million daily average during the first 20 days of December.