As a large part of the Western world slowly shakes the holiday cobwebs and gets back to work, the first of 2011’s statistics are starting to bubble to the surface. And, like yesterday’s champagne, these numbers are dizzying.
Ready? 1.2 BILLION. Go ahead, read it again. 1.2 Billion is the number of apps downloaded in the last 7 days of 2011 (December 25th to 31st) alone. According to Flurry Analytics1, for the first time in history, we passed the billion-download mark. It’s a pretty safe bet this won’t be the last time: just on December 25th, there were 6.8 MILLION phone activations (quite a jump from the 2.8 million in 2010). And -nearly all- of those phones are owned by people who feel the need to kill little green pigs: on Christmas day alone, there were 6.5 MILLION Angry Birds downloads. Even with a Holiday price cut, that should still tally up nicely for Rovio Mobile2.
Who downloaded all of this? Americans top the chart with 509 million downloads, followed by China (99 million), the U.K. (81 million) and Canada (41 million) 3.
The end of 2011, despite a recession and crumbling financial empires, is proving to be the beginning of a new era: the months to come may make 2012 the year of the app. The “dollar economy“ of apps may even force some investors to rethink who they should trust with their funds this year.
I, for one, cannot wait to see 2012’s numbers.
1 http://allthingsd.com/20120102/appy-holidays-the-first-billion-download-week/
2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/jan/04/angry-birds-christmas-downloads