Forget Selfies, Digital Picture Frames are This Year's Surprise Holiday Hit

Selfie apps have been a dominant trend in apps for a couple of years now, and this holiday season I found a similar trend - and it includes sharing photos but not to other phones.

Digital picture frames saw a massive surge in sales this holiday season, which is evident by the downloads of the companion apps needed to activate them.

Frameo and Aura Frame are two companion apps that made it to the top charts this holiday season.

In case you're unfamiliar, digital frames allow you to share photos from your phone into a digital screen - a great gift for new grandparents.

But probably more than just grandparents because the two saw 1.9M combined downloads in December, up 58% from 2022. Frameo led the way with 1.2M estimated downloads and Aura frame with 700K.

Aura's downloads rose 17% from last year while Frameo's downloads doubled!

I couldn't find any notable news about either, leading me to believe this growth wasn't a result of some new shiny tech (even though Aura mentions AI). Instead, it's a part of a growing trend to detach from our phones and bring more things IRL.

If that's the case, what's next?

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