Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android has topped 700,000 activations per day, according to the mobile operating system’s chief architect Andy Rubin.
Rubin, Google’s Google senior vice president of mobile, made the announcement via Twitter and on Google+, adding: “and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, 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.
As 9-to-5 Google noted, that’s almost 5 million every week, 21 million a month, or over 250 million Android devices activated a year. For market perspective, Apple sold 4 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 for Android. Consider that Google just reported 550,000 activations in only November, up from 500,000 in June and 400,000 in May for Google I/O.
It’s likely handsets such as Motorola Mobility’s (NYSE:MMI) 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 (NYSE:T), Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile, are selling well.
Appitalism CEO Simon Buckingham told AllThingsDigital that 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’s also reaching more markets worldwide on low-cost 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 United States and 50 percent worldwide.