Santa's sleigh was heavy with iPad devices this holiday season, but it appears he also had a few Kindle Fire tablets tucked in there.

According to stats from mobile ad firm Chitika, iPad Web usage saw a dip in the U.S. and Canada in tne days after Dec. 25.

Based on the smartphone and tablet impressions made across Chitika's network between Dec. 1 and Dec. 27, all iPad models saw a 7.14 percent drop after Christmas. The only other device that saw a drop in Web usage was Research In Motion's BlackBerry Playbook, which dipped 0.02 percent to 0.68 percent of the tablet market.

"The tablet which brought the product category into the mainstream, Apple's product has long been the king of the market," Chitika's report said. "However, this Christmas marked a serious diversification in tablet shares."

Still, the iPad had 78.9 percent of the market, down from 86 percent. Amazon made some gains, with the Kindle Fire ( at Amazon) up 3.03 percent after Christmas to 7.51 percent of tablets. Samsung Galaxy tablets were up 1.38 percent to 4.39 percent, and the Google Nexus tablets jumped 0.92 percent to 2.04 percent.

Chitika predicted that the iPad would return to the 80 percent Web usage range, "albeit lower than pre-holiday levels."

Price sensitivity likely worked in the favor of everyone but Apple this season, since the Kindle and Google Nexus tablets cost significantly less than the iPad.

"This substantial change underscores the inroads non-iPad tablets made this holiday season," Chitika said, "reflecting some initial holiday sales estimates released by companies like Amazon."

Cupertino should dry its tears, though, as it garnered a 1.11 percent rise in iPhone 5 usage, just beating out the Samsung Galaxy S III , which gained an even 1 percent. The Apple smartphone still carries more than 8 percent usage share, beating the flagship Android phone's 4.3 percent share.

Samsung made the list twice, with its "phablet" Galaxy Note and Note II smartphones, which together grabbed 0.17 percent. Google's Nexus 4 gained some traction, pushing its Web usage up 0.02 percent. Meanwhile, the HTC Droid DNA fell flat with no post-holiday change.

No matter the roller coaster changes of Web usage, mobile applications ruled the end of 2012. According to mobile analytics firm Flurry, the week between Christmas and New Year's was an historic one, racking up a record-breaking number of iOS and Android app downloads. By the end of the week, more than 50 million gadgets were activated, and 1.76 billion apps were downloaded.

For more from Stephanie, follow her on Twitter @smlotPCMag.

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