Google's Andy Rubin said Android is now being activated on 500,000 smartphones and tablets each day, with 4.4 percent week-to-week growth. Also, read more on the next Nexus device.
Google's Android mobile
operating system is growing like a proverbial weed, and is poised to get a new
member to the company's vaunted Nexus family of smartphones.
Android creator Andy Rubin
announced that he is now seeing 500,000 Android smartphones and tablets activated
each day. That's up from 400,000 activations Rubin copted to in May at Google
I/O and 300,000 he tweeted about last December.
Rubin, who revealed the
news early June 28 in this
Twitter tweet, also said he is seeing a 4.4 percent week-to-week growth in
handsets and tablets running the open source operating system.
The news comes one week
after reports surfaced that Apple's iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless and the
forthcoming iPhone 5 are slowing Android's smartphone market share roll.
The news also comes amid
rumors from Boy Genius Report that the company is preparing to launch a new
Nexus smartphone, possibly called the Samsung Nexus Prime in time for
Thanksgiving.
While BGR initially
reported the device would be
run the Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system on a faster
chip and a super-sized 720p HD screen, and forego physical meny keys, the gadget
blog has uncovered
new details.
The 4G radio-strapped device, dubbed Google Nexus Prime,
is built by Samsung, which is providing a Super AMOLED HD display. The
application processor will be a
Texas Instruments OMAP4460, which can run at up to 1.5GHz, instead of a Samsung
chip.
No word on exactly what carriers would sell the Nexus
Prime.
However, unlike past Nexus launches where Google partnered
with T-Mobile to launch the original Nexus One as the first Android 2.1 handset
and Nexus S and Sprint for the Nexus S 4G as the first Android 2.3
"Gingerbread" gadgets, Google could release Ice Cream Sandwich on multiple
carriers and OEMs at the same time.
"Imagine flagship releases from Motorola, HTC, and
LG with Ice Cream Sandwich available on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless,
and Sprint all at practically the same time... in addition to a Google Nexus
handset from Samsung," BGR noted.
These are only unsubstantiated rumors for which Google
will not provide a kernel of comment. However, such an effort could be part of
the search engine's new, unnamed alliance created to curb some of the fragmentation going on
within the Android ecosystem.
These partners, which
include carriers Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and manufacturers Samsung,
HTC and Motorola, will be eligible for software updates 18 months into the
future, provided the hardware allows for it.
This is an effort to get the carriers and partners on the
same software page. Launching Ice Cream Sandwich phones out of the gate could
help level this playing field even more.
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