Google Nearly Doubles Android Activations Since December

Speaking at an event to tout Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Motorola division, the company’s chairman — Eric Schmidt — said that Google is now activating 1.3 million Android-based devices every day. Of that number, only about 70,000 are tablets.

Schmidt also said that the Android ecosystem now counts 480 million devices, about 2-3x the size of Android’s nearest competitor, iOS from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) according to an article at TechCrunch.

In less than 9 months, Google and Android have nearly doubled daily activations from the December total of 700,000 activations a day. That is enormous and is sure to get bigger as Android-based device makers like Samsung, HTC Corp., and others keep rolling out new devices, particularly at the low end of the cost spectrum.

Whether or not Apple’s focus on a single new product every year continues remains to be seen. While there is certainly a rabid market for every new iPhone, that market is not expanding nearly as rapidly as the market for Android devices. Of course Apple still claims the widest margins in the industry, and far outstrips Android’s margins which are approximately zero.

Google’s always been in the smartphone business to push its mobile advertising platform. That still hasn’t paid off in a big way for the company, but as the number of Android devices grows, when payday comes, Google stands to reap a nice reward.

Paul Ausick