2011 was definitely the the year of the app. It's the year in which Apple hit an average of 1 billion downloads from the App Store a month, the year in which the 10 billionth app was downloaded from the Android Market and also the year that Pocket-lint had a go at being Alan Sugar; judging the contestants' app-auling efforts on The Apprentice.

And, in the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, an incredible 1.2 billion apps were downloaded on Android and iOS devices.

That figure has been declared by analytic company Flurry who states that, with an estimated 20 million new device activations during the same period, it was the largest week for device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history. To give some perspective, the week of 7 to 14 December saw around 750 million app downloads.

On Christmas Day alone there was an estimated 6.8 million iOS and Android device activations, along with a whopping 242 million application downloads.

The US was the country with the most app downloads; 509 million of the 1.2 billion. The UK sat in third place, behind China, with 81 million downloads.

The 12 days of Christmas free iTunes give-away may have contributed to the UK's lofty position, but more likely, it has something to do with the wealth of affordable Android devices now available on PAYG that many kids would have no doubt found wrapped up in their stockings come Christmas morning.

We're an 'appy world, that's for sure.

See also - Free apps mean big bucks for Apple and Google