This holiday season, the most popular gift requested were either smartphones or tablets so it’s not surprising that the most apps downloaded happened during this time.

Flurry Analytics noted that during the first 20 days of December, there are 1.3 to 1.8 million, with an average of 1.5 million iOS and Android devices activated each day.  But on Christmas day, activation increased by 353% or up to 6.8 million activated iOS and Android devices.  This year’s device activation is 140% higher than last year’s 2.8 million device activation.

And with device activation comes app download.  Flurry noted that during Christmas, there’s a 125% increase in apps download compared to the first 20 days of December.  During December 24th, it is estimated that over 150 million iOS and Android apps were downloaded.

Flurry noted that on Christmas day, starting “from 8 AM to Midnight, there are over twice as many downloads per hour.  And already by 9 AM, hourly downloads on Christmas exceeded 10 million.  At its zenith, from 7 PM to 9 PM, hourly downloads exceeded 15 million.  Between 11 AM to 11 PM, more than 175 million apps were downloaded.  By itself, this half day delivers over 70% more downloads than the entire baseline day.”

With this kind of mobile consumer behavior, you can bet that data usage is on the rise. Cisco predicts that by 2015, mobile data consumption will be 21 times greater than it is now.  On the average, monthly data consumption is at about 268MB and by 2015 monthly data usage will reach about 4GB.  This isn’t surprising especially with how app hungry people are.

Mobile service providers are taking full advantage of consumers’ love affair with mobile.  All the major wireless providers, from AT&T to Sprint, have modified their plans according to increasing data usage, most of the companies even opting to rid of unlimited data plans all together.  AT&T’s been most anxious to update its network accordingly, snapping up Qualcomm in a quick buy after the T-Mobile acquisition fell through.