iTunes Connect reopens early from holiday shutdown

Access to Apple's iTunes Connect service reopened a day shy of taking the full week planned for the yearly holiday shutdown of the website.

The iTunes Connect developer portal came back online early Wednesday morning, allowing app makers to manage their products a full day earlier than scheduled.

Apple notified developers earlier in December that the service would be shut down for the holidays from Dec. 22 to Dec. 29, and those who attempted to access the site before Wednesday were met with a standard "Sorry We're Closed" landing page.

iTunes Connect gives developers the tools necessary to manage content offered through Apple's App Store like daily and weekly sales trackers, contract management and financial reports.

The site is an integral part of maintaining a business through the App Store and is the only way to submit new apps and updates to existing products.

According to recent reports, sales are up across iOS devices with apps tailored for the iPhone alone seeing an 83 percent boost year-to-year as of November.

Christmas Day saw a massive jump in activations of iOS and Android devices, and represented a 353 percent growth in daily activations when compared to the previous 20 days of December. The 6.8 million Christmas activations set a new one-day record, shattering last year's best day by over 140 percent.