One billion apps were downloaded in a week

THERE WERE OVER A BILLION APPS downloaded in the week between Christmas and New Year according to figures from Flurry.com, a firm that watches that sort of thing.

The number of app downloads were helped along by a large number of Android and IOS handset activations, said the firm, which called the period a "power week" for developers.

"Starting with Christmas Day, the largest single device activation day of the year, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is filled with significantly elevated device activations and app downloads," it wrote in a blog post.

"For application makers, this holiday 'power week' is far more important than the run-up to Christmas itself... the last week of 2011 was the largest week for device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history."

During this "power week" there were over 20 million IOS and Android device activations and 1.2 billion application downloads. Downloads were about 60 per cent higher than in a normal week, "historically punching through the billion download barrier for the first time ever to deliver 1.2 billion downloads," according to the company.

Most apps were downloaded in the US, 509 million or just over 42 per cent, and the UK is in third place with its 81 million. China took second place with 99 million.

This year Flurry expects that one billion app downloads per week will become a common occurrence. µ