China Outpaces the U.S. in New iOS and Android Device Activations

According to new data from Flurry, China now leads the U.S. in new iOS and Android device activations, an occurrence that’s been months in the making.

China exhibited year-over-year app session growth of 1,126 percent in the first quarter of 2012, according to Flurry. “A session is the launch and use of an application,” the report notes. “For example, a consumer who opens a news application and then spends two minutes reading various articles counts as one session.”

Argentina was a not-so-close second with 599 percent growth, followed by the Philippines with 546 percent growth, Russia with 514 percent growth, Belgium with 467 percent growth, India with 463 percent growth, Israel with 403 percent growth, Saudi Arabia with 399 percent growth, Thailand with 389 percent growth and Turkey with 384 percent growth.

Flurry found that China has overtaken the U.S. when it comes to new iOS and Android device (smartphones and tablets) activations per month. In January 2011, the U.S. accounted for 28 percent of the world’s device activations, while China accounted for just 8 percent. China’s share of activations remained at 8-9 percent until August 2011, when it crept up to 10 percent. During this month, the U.S. accounted for 26 percent of activations.

Both countries exhibited growth until December 2011, when the U.S. peaked at 34 percent of iOS and Android device activations around the world, while China accounted for 17 percent.

However, since December, the U.S.’s share of new iOS and Android device activations has dropped each month and rests at 21 percent in March. China, on the other hand, has continued its rise, with its share of device activations resting at 24 percent in March.

Flurry notes that it projects the last 10 days of the first quarter of 2012.

“Not only is China already the second largest app economy, but also could eventually overtake the U.S. as the country with the largest installed base of smart device users,” Flurry notes in its report. The company estimates that the U.S. has more than twice as many active devices than China, though China already has twice as large an installed base as the U.K., which is next on the list.

According to Flurry, 46 percent of total app sessions happened in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2012, down from 56 percent in the first quarter of 2011. The rest of the top 10 (ranks 2-9) accounted for 30 percent of total app sessions, up from 27 percent in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, 24 percent of app sessions in the first quarter of 2012 happened in the rest of the non-top 10 world, up from 17 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

“No matter how we slice it, the application market continues to grow at unprecedented rates, and increasingly across more borders,” the report notes.

Source:

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/83261/China-Now-Leads-the-World-in-New-iOS-and-Android-Device-Activations