Apple dominated the electronic device gift-market of Christmas 2014 with an astonishing 51% of all devices activated worldwide during the holiday-season. Far behind: Samsung ranks second with a disappointing 18%.
Flurry report: Apple and Apps Dominated Christmas 2014 | Flurry.
IKEA´s new ad promoting its new catalogue is a hillarious parody of Apple´s famous product commercials….
Apple´s app store is still growing in impressive speed: The company announced that it paid out USD 2 billion to developers during its Q1 of fiscal year 2014 and a total of USD 10 billion in its FY 2013.
The store´s shift to apps featuring in-app purchase is still not finished, though (92% of revenues as of now) – and it continues to stay a good place for developers to earn significant money.
Full story: Apple Pays Out $2 Billion To Developers In Q1 2014 | TechCrunch.
Apple has added an additional USD 2 billion to the already enormous budget of USD 3 billion for its new spaceship-style headquarter-building in Cupertino. – But with an estimated USD 140 billion cash-reserve, this ambitious project still sounds realistic.
Good news for Samsung: The USD 1 billion initially awarded to Apple in the patent dispute has been reduced to USD 450 million. A new trial to come for additional products not considered in the first round.
Full story: Judge slashes Apples Samsung damages by $450m | GamesIndustry International.
Tablets and smartphone are still the gadgets of choice this holiday-season. And a Reuters-interview with 70 shoppers and store employees in 10 major cities shows, that Apple still is their favorite brand.
Full story: As global consumers shop mobile, Apple outshines rivals | Reuters.
This sales-milestone (that´s double of last year!!!) includes all ecosystems and platforms – and also in-app purchases, subscriptions and in-app advertisement in addition to traditional paid apps.
About a third of app-revenues now come form the Google Play store.
Full story: Mobile app sales to exceed $30 billion by the end of the year.
This is quite a big number (for comparison: Asus sells around 1 million Nexus 7 tablets per month) – the same level as iPad 3 – sales (but without a mini-version), but clearly less than the iPhone 5 (5 million sold in the first weekend).
Full story: Apple Sells 3 Million iPad Minis And 4th Generation iPads In 3 Days | TechCrunch.
Another great milestone for the flagship smartphone: The Galaxy SIII has passed 30 million sold items about five months after launch. For comparison: Apple says it sold 26,9 million iPhones in the quarter.
Apple´s dominant share of the tablet-market shrunk in the third quarter of this year – down to 50,4 percent from 59,7 percent a year ago. Samsung now at 18,4 percent, Amazon now 9 percent.
(source: IDC)
