The weeks before Christmas may be prime time for America's physical retailers, but now that everybody's unwrapped their new gadgets, it's time to load them up with apps.

Third-party data from Sensor Tower found that spending on apps over Christmas weekend 2016 grew 52 percent from the previous year. But New Year's Day, not Christmas, was the App Store's record-breaking day last holiday season. Customers spent $240 million in the App Store on Jan. 1, 2017, according to Apple, after spending $3 billion for the entire month of December 2016.

That pace probably won't slow this year. A Mastercard SpendingPulse report released Tuesday estimates that sales of electronics and appliances over the holidays increased 7.5 percent, the strongest growth over the past decade. Amazon's mobile app and website saw more than 1,400 electronics products ordered every second over the holidays.

Meanwhile, Apple and Google are making it easier than ever to get new software.