Google Claims Over 700k Android Activations Daily

Google Android has topped 700,000 activations per day, according to the mobile operating system’s chief architect Andy Rubin.

Rubin, Google’s senior vice president for Mobile, made the announcement via Twitter and on Google+, adding: “and for those wondering, we count each device only once (that is, we don’t count re-sold devices), and ‘activations’ means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service”.

That latter detail, taken as truth, should settle the argument about whether Google is fudging its numbers for Android activations. Any way one slices it, 700,000 is a huge number.

250 million per year

The figures equate to almost five million every week, 21 million a month, or over 250 million Android devices activated a year, as the 9-to-5 Google blog noted. In a market perspective, Apple sold four million iPhone 4S units in its first week in October, and 17 million total iPhones in the third quarter.

Clearly, the holiday selling season has been a boon to Android. Consider that Google reported 550,000 activations in November alone, up from 300,000 at this time last year.

It is likely handsets such as Motorola Mobility’s Droid Razr and Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus on Verizon Wireless 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, along with Samsung Galaxy S II handsets from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are selling well.

Appitalism CEO Simon Buckingham told AllThingsDigital daily Android activations could reach 2.5 million per day, or more than 900 million units a year. His argument is that there is plenty of momentum behind the OS.

It is also reaching more markets worldwide on low-costs handsets and appearing in other devices, including tablets and Google TV-based televisions. Through November Android’s smartphone market share is roughly 53 percent in the US and 50 percent worldwide.