When it comes to app downloads, there’s no question that people love them. But there’s also a question of whether companies are better prepared to provide more of them.

According to a report from Fiksu, app downloads from Apple’s App Store have managed to reach a new high for the month of December, with an average daily download volume of 9.2 million for the top 200 free iOS apps — that’s a jump from November’s 8.1 million and October’s 7.8 million, showing an increasing trend in popularity. In total, it’s a growth of 44 percent over December 2013’s numbers.

Fiksu’s CEO Micah Adler stated that the growth is “an indicator of what we call the ‘new reality of apps,'” according to GamesIndustry International. “Consumer demand across iOS and Android is rising, which draws significant attention from major brands who are putting cost pressure on the games and other mobile-first apps.

“We expect these factors will not only elevate costs for marketers, but also drive an evolution of marketing strategies,” he continued. “In 2015, just buying mobile ads won’t be enough to drive usage — app marketers will need robust strategies based on customer data and precision targeting to find the right users for the apps.”

interestingly, while the CPI (Cost Per Install) rose dramatically for both iOS and Android apps have risen (42 and 47 percent, respectively), the CPI for games declined by 15 percent and six percent, respectively. It may be that game publishers opted to try other marketing methods to generate installs in December, but for whatever reason the spending on game installs was just not as high.

“This division points to increased competition among top-tier brands during the holiday period, as well as suggesting that some game publishers opted to limit their investment in the holiday battleground this year,” said Adler.

Adding to the conversation was VB Insight analyst John Koetsier. “As competition for users just continues to amp up in mobile, smart publishers are using mobile marketing automation solutions to drive deeper engagement — and monetization — with the users they get,” he explained, speaking with VentureBeat.

“Many of the top solutions enable automated one-to-one targeting, offers and messaging . . . really a CRM-like experience at millions-of-users scale.”

Caution is still likely to be used by some companies when it comes to customer acquisition, but that isn’t likely to stop others from paying more for new users. Will game publishers turn back to spending on customer acquisition, causing game CPI’s to rise We’ll be watching with interest.