Google has recently announced it has hit a milestone of 700,000 devices activated daily. This does not include second hand devices, only brand new products.
The figures show that over 700,000 Android devices, including both smartphones and tablets are now activated daily.
Thanks to the fact Google’s Android OS is adopted by a multitude of hardware manufacturers, including Samsung, HTC and LG, these sales figures are unsurprising, but an achievement nonetheless.
It’s market share of the mobile operating system is not only growing, but the rate of growth remains strong, a feat Microsoft have been unable to achieve lately with Windows Phone 7, taking into account it’s 0.2% decline in market share in Q4 2011.
According to many market observers, Android is set to remain the leading operating system for mobile devices, on a scale only seen during the rise of Windows during the 90s.
Unsurprisingly, Apple remain tight-lipped about the daily activation of its devices, but based on sales figures published, the amount of iOS devices activated daily stands between 250,000 and 300,000 (or more), less than half of Google’s sales figures.
From a first glance, it appears that Google are then far outweighing iOS in terms of success? Perhaps think differently after you consider iOS is currently available on 3 devices; the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Simply, Apple is activating almost half of the devices Android achieves, with 3 devices, compared to the hundreds available with Android.
Android is a free, open-source platform that is available, with permission, to any hardware manufacturer. Of course, this creates an open ecosystem, but an ecosystem that cannot be controlled or moderated by Google, leading to many Android devices on the market being notoriously slow and inefficient.
Consider, if Apple allowed iOS to be open-source, to any hardware manufacturer, how many devices with iOS installed would be activated daily? Likely many more than 700,000.
On occasion it is difficult to distinguish between the most successful product and the product which sells the best.
Apple and Samsung remain with their horns locked together in the midst of a worldwide legal battle over patent infringements, including recently Samsung’s ‘Smart Case’, a direct copy of Apple’s ‘Smart Cover’.
