Which Windows Phone Did You Get for Christmas?

The good folks at AdDuplex have provided some interesting data about which Windows Phone handsets were found most often under the Christmas tree this past holiday season. And while the Lumia lineup obviously continues to dominate this market, you may be a bit surprised to discover which handset saw the biggest growth in new app installs, and by a wide margin.

As you may remember, AdDuplex bills itself as the largest cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps, empowering developers and publishers to promote their apps for free by helping each other. And each month it provides a tantalizing glimpse at which Windows devices people are actually using out in the world. I reported on the most recent usage data in Windows Phone Device Usage: December 2014 last week.

But this week, AdDuplex provided some different data. It notes that new app installs on Windows Phone spiked on Christmas day, as you might expect. But then they looked at the data a bit differently. Which Windows Phone handsets grew the most on December 25 compared to December 24 (by way of new app installs)? After all, this information could roughly correlate to which Windows Phone handsets were the most-often gifted for Christmas.

Here's what it looks like.

Surprised? Yep, the BLU Win HD—which I gave a very positive review to back in October—and is now available unlocked from Amazon.com for just $175 in your choice of yellow, orange, or white, was number one, and by a wide margin.

Rounding out the top five:

Nokia Lumia 735. My top Lumia of 2014. In Nokia Lumia 735 Review, I wrote that "I cannot believe how much I enjoy using this phone."

Nokia Lumia 635. As I noted in my Nokia Lumia 635 Review, a "killer budget handset."

Nokia Lumia 530. An absolute piece of garbage that you should avoid. In Nokia Lumia 530 Preview I wrote that "readers of this site need to set their sights a bit higher."

Nokia Lumia 630. I didn't explicitly review this one, but since it's the same phone as the 635, it's just as good.

Microsoft Lumia 535. As noted in Microsoft Lumia 535 First Impressions, the 535 "brings higher-end features down to an audience that otherwise couldn't afford them."

(Yes, there are five more items there, so that's sort of the top six when you add in the BLU. But I consider the Lumia 630 and 635 to be the same phone.)

So. The BLU Win HD actually outsold all those Lumia models?

Sort of. As AdDuplex explains, that's a growth chart, and it's measuring app installs. So what we're really seeing here is "hundreds [of app installs for the BLU] compared to thousands and tens of thousands [of app installs for all] Lumia models." In other words, when we see the usage data for January, Lumia will still account for 95 percent-ish of all Windows Phones in use. But I bet we see at least a little bump for the BLU Win HD, which again is a very nice device and a great value for the price.