Android Reaches 500 Million Activations Worldwide

News
By Tuan Mai
published

Google mobile chief tweets an impressive milestone for Android.

Last week, Google executive director Eric Schmidt made an appearance during the Motorla Razr event, stating that the company has reached a whopping 480 million Android activations and was quickly approaching the 500 million mark.

Just days later, Google mobile chief Andy Rubin tweeted, "There have been half a billion android activations to date, with over 1.3m added every day."

It's unclear whether the announcement had anything to do with Apple's iPhone 5 reveal, but is an impressive achievement regardless.

1.3 million activations a day is nearly double the 700,000 a day reported in December of last year. With the massive volume of Android devices making their way to the market each day, it wouldn't be much of a surprise to see these numbers grow even more.

500 million activations does beat out Apple's 410 million iDevice sales reported in the company's July earnings call. But with the new and improved iPhone 5 on the loose, we'll just have to wait and see which platform reigns supreme.

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Tuan Mai
Tuan Mai
Tuan Mai is a Los Angeles based writer and marketing manager working within the PC Hardware industry. He has written for Tom's Guide since 2010, with a special interest in the weird and quirky.
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • I miss the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese's...
    Reply
  • memadmax
    Burn rotten Apple, burn...
    Reply
  • house70
    Wow, this article is trying really hard to start a troll war....
    What has TH become?
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    "500 million activations does beat out Apple's 410 million iDevice"

    So Android beats not just the mobile phone but the pads and Apples MP3 player and TV device as well? Impressive stuff considering Apple had about a years head start on Google.

    Reading stats like this also makes it obvious why Apple is keen to do whatever it takes to stop the momentum of Android, in Apples last earnings call the iPhone accounts for HALF of Apples profits. Staggering, I'm amazed that the iphone 5 costs more then a iPad 2.
    Reply
  • samkl
    Sum of all handhelds = Android' 500M devices, Apple's 410M and Blackberry with WP7 is well over a billion devices today. What is striking is that it took PCs over 20 years to reach that mark, and only 4 years for smartphones and tablets.

    Adoption velocity difference between PCs and handhelds is enormous, isn't it.
    -SK
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    I would like to see iPads vs. Android tablets. With all those Chinese tablets, Android might still win there too.
    Reply
  • ddpruitt
    Maybe someone should ask how many of these devices are currently active.
    Reply
  • house70
    kawininjazxI would like to see iPads vs. Android tablets. With all those Chinese tablets, Android might still win there too.Correct, with a minor rectification: they're ALL made in China (well, at least all iPads are, and a large amount of Android tablets), so start counting the iPad as a Chinese tablet, too. Some Android ones are made in Korea, Taiwan, and maybe a couple other countries.
    Reply
  • gm0n3y
    ddpruittMaybe someone should ask how many of these devices are currently active.Agreed. I would guess that most people are on their second or third smartphone by now. So what is the total number of iOS and Android devices currently in use? That would be a much more telling figure.
    Reply
  • hate machine
    This number only includes activation through the Play store. Any device maker that is not part of the OHA cannot put Gapps on their device, so that means no Play store. So the number of Android devices out there exceeds this.
    Reply