Andy Rubin: Android activating 500,000 devices a day
At Google I/O in early May, the company boasted that activations were up to 400,000 a day with100 million cumulative device activations, representing36 OEMS, 215 Carriers and 310 devices. The pace of growth has been staggering for Android, which hit the 100,000 activations per day milestone in May 2010. By December 2010, that number was up to 300,000 a day.
Now with Honeycomb (an Android variant) tablets hitting the market, the device activations are being supplemented by larger tablet devices, not just smartphones. Indeed, almost every company is putting out a tablet these days, most built off of Googles Android operating system.The rise of Android has helped lift the fortunes of a number of companies, making HTC a household name and at the same time helping Samsung emerge as a major player in smartphones.
All this growth has not come without headaches. Fragmentation is still an issue. Developers are still not seeing the same type of money making opportunities they experience on iOS. Developers are also now having to face patent cases from Lodsys, the patent troll that has turned its eyes toward Android. Malicious apps are also a growing concern for Android users. And as Android grows, it makes it more of a target for patent royalties by companies looking to extract more out of their patent portfolios. Just yesterday, General Dynamics Itronix agreed to pay Microsoft for use of patented technology found in Android, an agreement similar to one HTC also struck with Microsoft.
The more royalty payments manufacturers pay out, the more it undercuts Androids promise of being a free platform. But with all the momentum its seen, Googles Android seems hardly fazed.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription reqd):
- Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile andAT&T
- A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 2015
- Fixing Fragmentation: Googles Key to the Enterprise TabletSpace
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