Zagg, Twitter searches, Say iPad Was Popular Gift This Christmas

Some anecdotal website traffic from Zagg shows the iPad was a popular gift this Christmas.

According to Zagg, daily iPad traffic to its website increased by 169 percent on Christmas Day. That measurement is for all iPad models, including the iPad mini. The increase is likely from new iPad owners looking for accessories for their new tablet. Zagg makes a number of accessories for all iPad models, including screen protectors and keyboards.

Zagg didn’t give exact traffic numbers for its website, but it seems safe to say that a number of new iPad owners used the tablet to look for accessories. It’s just not clear exactly how many new iPad owners did so.

Read: iPad Mini vs. Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire HD vs. Nook HD: Flaws & Fixes

Another piece of interesting anecdotal evidence of the popularity of the iPad on Christmas comes from @axian on Twitter. The Twitter user put together a graphic comparing the number of new tweets from new devices on Christmas Eve. The iPad was clearly more popular among Twitter users compared to the Amazon Kindle Fire, Google Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface.

According to the graphic 1,795 tweets came from new iPads in the 24 hour period. The closest competitor was the Kindle Fire, with 250 first tweets from the device. The Nexus 7 came in third with 100 tweets, and the Surface placed fourth with just 36 tweets.

The graphic isn’t a perfect snapshot of the market, however. It’s only a good measurement of avid Twitter users who received the new devices. Not everyone who received a new tablet for the holidays tweeted about it, or they could have waited to tweet about their new device. Unfortunately, after the graphic first appeared on Twitter it became impossible to search twitter for the same values without returning hundreds of retweets of the image.

The App developer behind MASH and SketchParty TV tells Gotta Be Mobile that sales since Christmas are, “2 to 2.5x normal for MASH and SketchParty TV.” Total sales numbers are not yet available for apps thanks to the iTunes Connect holiday shutdown.

The anecdotal evidence shows that Apple’s iPad likely “won” this holiday season as more people received it instead of a competing tablet. Unfortunately, Apple is the only company of the four listed in the Twitter graphic that will likely release exact sales numbers, so it’s hard to say for sure.