App downloads set holiday record despite maturing

App downloads over the holidays managed to set a record despite a slowing of the annual increase in a maturing market, a U.S. mobile analytic firm says. Flurry, in San Francisco, said its data showed the number of app downloads on Christmas Day increased by 11 percent year-on-year compared with the previous year, with the average day in December seeing a 25 percent increase in downloads. However, that was down from Christmas 2012 when the amount of downloads on Christmas Day increased by 90 percent with the average day in December showing a 97 percent increase, it said. "The slowing growth rates and smaller Christmas Day app download spike signal market maturation," Flurry said in a blog post. "Many consumers in Western Europe and English-speaking countries already have a smartphone and/or a tablet. "Fewer people are coming online with mobile for the very first time. Consumers who are on second, third or fourth devices have apps that they like and trust, and while they still download new apps, there isn't much more impetus to do so on Christmas than any other day when they have a little downtime," the company said. Flurry said it tracks 400,000 of the world's most popular apps to generate its data.