8 ms·

700,000 Android devices activated each day

120 points by arron61 15y ago

Andy Rubin: "There are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day." "...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."

byoung2 15y ago
I wonder what number of distinct users is. Once you go Android, you tend to stay there. Between my wife and me, for example, we have had 6 Android phones (1 HTC Hero, 2 HTC Evo 4Gs, 3 HTC Amaze 4Gs), and 5th Android tablet (2 Samsung Galaxy Tabs, 1 Asus Transformer, 1 Acer Iconia, and 1 T-Mobile G-Slate). I'm sure each activation was recorded, but there isn't really a way to deactivate a device. Even a factory reset appears to be restricted to the phone, and doesn't register anything with the carrier/Google.
- Aloisius 15y ago
  Goodness. Why do you own so many phones & tablets?
  - trafficlight 15y ago
    I think the basic idea is "one is good, six are better".
    - throw_away 15y ago
      getting a screen extender to stitch together all eleven devices (don't forget the five tablets) would be amazing.
  - byoung2 15y ago
    My wife got the HTC hero first. That turned us on to Android. Then we both upgraded to the HTC Evo. Then we both switched to TMobile and got the HTC Amaze. I had mine a month before I lost it. Insurance replaced it with a new one. The tablets, the first Galaxy tab was a Sprint one with a contract, which was returned for a WiFi one. It then got sent to the Philippines so my father in la could use it for video chat. The Acer iconia and the Asus transformer are so my wife can have one that fits in a purse and one for a laptop replacement. The g slate is the extra one, but since it has a sim card, well use it for travel.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  If you own 11 Android devices, you're probably in the top 10% of earners in this country. Smartphones as a whole aren't near 50% of cell phones in the US; the plans are still prohibitively expensive. I think the case of a single person owning more than one Android device is a very rare one.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- paperwork 15y ago
  >Once you go Android, you tend to stay there Interesting, I've heard the opposite. My brother knows several people who started out on Android, but switched to iphone. He ended up switching from learning to do Android apps to iPhone apps.
  - jlgosse 15y ago
    Going to have to say that I've had a much better experience with iOS than any other platform. In the past three years I have moved in the following sequence: - Windows Mobile (Motorola Q) - Various BlackBerry Devices (Curve, Storm, Torch, etc) - Android (Nexus One) - Windows Phone 7 (Samsung Focus) - Android (Nexus One, again) + iPad 2 - iOS (iPhone 4S) Having dabbled in J2ME, BlackBerry, Android and iPhone development, and having used all devices for a minimum of two months, I can tell you that,] if for some crazy reason, I decide to jump off the iOS boat, I will be going straight to Windows Phone 7 and not Android. In terms of overall UX/UI and general happiness, I've found that the top three platforms are represented as follows: 1. iOS 2. WP7 3. Android With regards to overall ease-of-development and awesomeness of API, as well as general happiness from developing for particular platforms: 1. iOS 2. Android 3. BlackBerry Obviously just my own perspective, but I think this gives me enough authority to recommend a platform to a particular user when asked.
    - diminish 15y ago
      Trying both ios,blackberries etc, I deployed 12 androids in the family. I like its flexibility, and being a programmer, I sometimes download roms. Android gives a lot of freedom. I didnt like ios, mainly no widgets, no context menu standardized and too many buttons and button clicks, no true multitasking. it is for single threaded people, because it puts you in a mode where you have to go one by one. Android is truly a swiss army knife and talks to all out needs. I have so many options. For example for international travels i have a smaller android, my father insists on a dual sim. Android tablets add to the diversity. Wp7, blackberry and ios lack in diversity and free customization options. I suggest everyone to try Androids. There is one for your taste.
      - 15y ago
- untog 15y ago
  Once you go Android, you tend to stay there. I think that's conventional wisdom- and I think it's wrong. I went from Android to WP7, because I am a weird UI obsessive. But my girlfriend has an Android and is due an upgrade- and she's sick of it. She's likely going to get an iPhone.
  - vosper 15y ago
    Being "a weird UI obsessive" is a very small subset of users, given that if you asked a typical smartphone user what "UI" means a majority of them probably couldn't tell you.
    - byoung2 15y ago
      I'd agree with that, but now that you mention it, I can say that I like HTC Sense UI better than stock Android or Samsung/Motorola UIs
    - untog 15y ago
      Sure, that's why I was describing myself as an exception to the usual case. And why I put forward the case of my girlfriend, who definitely isn't a UI obsessive, but is leaving Android.
- rjd 15y ago
  Well both my parents have replaced android phones with iphones because they had trouble using them. I had a cheap LG that went flat continuously and I gave it away and went back to a feature phone so I could use the phone for the purpose I need it. I know a few people who are sysadmins with android, but I also know more sysadmins with black berries. I don't know anyone who isn't a sysadmin that has an android phone, most people I associate with tend to be in sale or design... so probably no surprise all of them use iphones.
- ugh 15y ago
  It seems to me that Android would be the easiest to switch away from. Not so much for any technical reasons, rather because of the mindset most Android buyers (I know) have. Android is the default choice if you don’t want an iPhone. It’s the default and generic smartphone. All people who have Android phones I know don’t care about the OS at all. They may like the phone (Look at my nice new Samsung smartphone! Isn’t this HTC phone cool?), they know nothing and don’t care one bit about the OS.
  - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
    "All people who have Android phones I know..." Selection bias alert. I have an android phone that's nearly two years old, and I bought it specifically for the OS.
    - ugh 15y ago
      Yeah, selection bias alright. I just think I have the more plausible selection bias. That's all :-) If you are selling nearly a million phones per day it's not the geeks who are buying (don't get me wrong, geeks are buying tons of Android phones – but they are a minority), it's normal people. And normal people don't buy for the OS (at least if it's not the iPhone). It is my very clear impression that Android phones have become the default generic smartphone. People who want a smartphone (and in all likelihood also people who don’t even know they want a smartphone) but don’t know anything more specific than that will (with high probability) walk out of the store with an Android phone. The carriers’ marketing speaks to that and also how they place those phones in their stores. Sure, the iPhone gets its stand and Nokia gets its stand but the big table in the middle is full of Android phones at all price points. (And, by the way, no big Android logo anywhere. If there are logos at all it’s the logos of the manufacturers.)
arron61 15y ago
Andy Rubin: "...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." So it seems like a new device only.
- jamesaguilar 15y ago
  I wonder why they don't just use a word that people understand.
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    If it's a new device that is activated by the carrier, then it's a new "sold" device. So the numbers signify 700,000 Android devices sold per day.
  - arron61 15y ago
    They don't sell the phones so they don't know how many are sold. The only count they have is all the activations that are coming from every new phone. I don't think there can be a better measurement for them than this.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Because if the used the word sold, the Internets would be full of people claiming, that the products were just hauled from factories to sellers warehouses, where they are sitting and not being bought by anyone.
- moocow01 15y ago
  Does this take into account people who are upgrading to a new Android phone from an old one? If not it could really impact the metrics if one is looking at this as a measurement of new entrants into the Android ecosystem.
  - Maxious 15y ago
    This metric is used is because Apple uses it for their iOS devices in keynotes. Surely both platforms could use "app store accounts with their first device added" per day as a metric if they wanted to. And for Android, you'd want to know what version these activated devices are - no reason a 1.5 device couldn't still be activated today even if the app ecosystem has seemingly moved on.
dave1619 15y ago
If Steve Jobs was still around he would not be happy about this.
danielharan 15y ago
That sounded way too high. But then, holy crap: 1 billion people buying a device once every 3 years is ~ 1 million a day. Wow.
- diminish 15y ago
  2 years is a better interval.
  - whatusername 15y ago
    Not over 1 billion people it's not. There's a lot of families that use hand-me-down phones. Consider the scenario where Mum gets a new Phone every 2 years and Dad gets her old one when she's done. The phone has a 4 year life. Averaging it out (over the richest 1billion people in the world) and 3 years is possibly a pretty close figure.
    - cryptoz 15y ago
      I highly doubt the richest 1 billion have anything at all to do with the majority of Android phone purchases. Countries like Nigeria (140,000,000 people) and Kenya (40,000,000 people) are starting to see their populations going from no-computers to everybody-has-a-smartphone. Most people there may never own a PC but will move straight to cheap, open source smartphones. I would bet that Android's growth numbers are a majority of new users and a minority of returning users. The platform's only been popular for a single "update cycle" anyhow. 3G networks are popping up in the poorest parts of the world and people are buying phones there.
azakai 15y ago
It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and Microsoft are going to try to stop Android, but it looks like they are having little or no effect. Lawyers get paid, some silly patents get worked around, but that's about it it seems.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Not to mention that it seems most of Microsoft's patents are worthless when they are tested in Court. 6 out of 7 of, which I assume are some of their best patents if they used them in the lawsuit, have been declared invalid. http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=14688&NewsAreaID=2 http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseI... If the manufacturers currently paying Microsoft patent fees man up and take Microsoft to Court, they could break free, too, or at the very least pay 7 times less of what they are paying now, if their other patents are just as worthless. But seriously, how could anyone even think the current patent system is even close to being fine when most of the tested patents in Court are being declared invalid? (I believe Apple also got about 18 out of 20 of their patents invalidated in Europe). This is ridiculous.
  - cooldeal 15y ago
    Motorola's press release is trying to spin the news into a positive for them. Better coverage here http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/itc-judge-issues-initial-ruling-that-motorola-infringes-microsof/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/itc-judge-issues-initial-... > ...have been declared invalid. Someone specific declared not infringing on a patent is not the same as the patent being declared invalid.
- thought_alarm 15y ago
  It's all about the carriers. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android. A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's configured and what software is bundled. Patent attacks against individual Android manufacturers and individual models are irrelevant. Your carrier will always have a wall of indistinguishable Android phones for the next customer to choose from.
X-Istence 15y ago
And these numbers are the reason why Android development is going to be a royal pain in the butt for a long time to come. There is just no incentive for Google to change the developer tools to be more developer friendly, to be more powerful when developers are forced to release an Android application simply because it is the platform with the most users on it. Despite the fact that from a development standpoint it is a nightmare due to differing hardware/software to the point that shops that want to develop for Android have to have 30+ devices just for physically testing. The Android emulator is absolute crap because of timing difference a bug can manifest itself in the emulator and not on the phone and vice-versa. Not only that but the quality of applications on Android devices is simply not up to par with the quality of the same applications on the iPhone. It says a lot when Twitter and Facebook wholesale take their UI designs/decisions and put them on Android devices from their iPhone counterparts.
- psychotik 15y ago
  Amen. I wish they also included how many different variants of Android were actually being shipped, and what version each one was. _Those_ numbers would make us developers tremble. With iOS, it's simple -- if a million iOS devices were activated today, I'd know they all ran the exact same version of iOS 5.x, and none were customized or bastardized by OEMs. At least on that front, I'm thankful to Apple (I can write a whole other rant about iOS' crappiness too, but that's not relevant here) PS: Here's an example of how Android EMs screw over apps/devs: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5358014/android-httpclient-oom-on-4g-lte-htc-thunderbolt http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5358014/android-httpclien...
  - deleted 15y ago
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  - X-Istence 15y ago
    I recently read this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3362072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3362072 a post by user "calloc" which I find quite interesting. I personally work for Absio Corp (http://absio.com/ http://absio.com/) and we do Android development for the DoD and we too have found many of the issues that I've mentioned above and that calloc has found as well. At the moment we are testing on the Evo 4G, Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II, and the Droid X, with a couple of other devices mixed in. I believe we also got a new Galaxy Nexus that we are testing on. It's a pain, and we've had issues with bugs only cropping up on one device but not another (even if they have the same Android version).
theSuda 15y ago
I guess these numbers will increase as mobile vendors provide better ROMs with their mobiles. I bought a LG Optimus one to get started on Android (a year ago)and I got sick of its LG ROM in two weeks flat. Then I rooted it and put a custom ROM from XDA forums (with a custom optimised Kernel). I couldn't be more happier with my mobile's performance than this. Also I hear some new models of LG, HTC, Samsung have minimal default apps and lightweight ROMs now. So people don't have to be frustrated with un-removable built in apps and crap default home launchers. This will certainly get usability freaks (like me) interested.
rjd 15y ago
Does anyone else look at these numbers and instantly think of the shear volume of waste? With iphones thats a well over million per day. With most people already owning a phone thats a lot of superseded devices to deal with. Thats a lot of chemical waste...
- cryptoz 15y ago
  I think the vast majority of these users are probably on their first smartphone. For example, Android is huge in African countries where families who've never owned a computer are starting to sign up for cheap 3G plans with cheap Android phones. I bet there's a lot of waste, but I also bet that it's nothing compared to the waste from old American cars driving around and polluting. Think of what these new cheap smartphones mean for humanity - the ability for entire populations to pop on the internet that never have before, read wikipedia, etc. Surely that is worth the waste it is producing.
  - rjd 15y ago
    I wasn't really referring to the 'carbon footprint' if thats why you brought cars into it. I was more referring to things like PCBs and batteries, and the chemical processes used in refining these things. Toxic and harmful chemicals appearing in ecosystems they shouldn't... when things like cell phones don't get reprocessed properly.
    - troll24601 15y ago
      The good news is that services like gazelle, Amazon Buyback, eBay Instant Sale and Verizon Trade-in are making it more likely that old phones get sold and kept in use, instead of rotting in a drawer until they're tossed into the household waste.
    - swombat 15y ago
      There are plenty of toxic chemicals in car manufacturing. Hell, cars (particularly old ones) produce these toxic chemicals continuously while you drive them! Smart phones are a hell of a lot less toxic than cars. As for the comparative benefits, we could argue until the cows come home - both products are insanely useful and life-changing - but if we simply declared them equally useful, that would make phones a better bargain due to the much smaller amounts of toxicity.
pbreit 15y ago
I'm sure the number is accurate and kudos to Google but, wow, who the heck is activating all these devices? From the people I run into I would estimate the iOS:Android ratio at 10 or 20 to 1 (San Francisco).
- gbog 15y ago
  Observation biais. Estimations from China: - In my office, a Web company: Android vs iOS is maybe 30 - 70 - In the subway, Android vs iOS is more like 80 - 20.
- akashshah 15y ago
  In my team, in the last 3 months, 6 people have bought Androids vs 2 buying the iphone 4s
- buster 15y ago
  In my team it's currently about even, but more and more switch over to Android. 1 year ago i was the only guy with an Android phone. Now it's even.
- bane 15y ago
  My day job we have 2 holdouts still using iOS, the rest went BB->iOS->Android. 2 of us went BB->Android direct and based on our experiences we eventually converted the rest. At a contract site I work at, out of 15 people on the team, only 1 has an iOS, the rest have some kind of Android variant (with 1 having a BB) two have switched from iOS to Android in the last 12 months. I wouldn't say there's significant peer pressure to switch, they just go to the store and end up with an Android device, so I expect carrier pressure is the source. An inspection of the rest of the organization (about 500 people), shows it to be about 70/20/10 Android/BB/iOS. At my startup we're 100% Android, but considering getting a couple iOS devices for development, but not day-to-day usage. I have 3 friends who are Apple diehards, you'll get their iDevices out of their cold dead hands. But the rest are currently Android users, with one switching up phones every so often just to see what the other side has. Coffee shops and trains around here (D.C.) show mostly Android phones and iPads. Very rare to see an Android tablet in the wild. iPhones are not too uncommon, but seem to belong to the younger, hipper crowd.
sunkencity 15y ago
How are they certain it's not 400' doing a factory restore or rom flush?
samstave 15y ago
That is only 10,000 years before all of humanity has one...
- divtxt 15y ago
  I think you mean 10,000 DAYS (which is still 27.4 years).
- akashshah 15y ago
  s/years/days
divtxt 15y ago
Android is taking off here in India because it's creeping into the low-end. I'm sure the same thing is happening in most countries. Last week I got a Samsung Galaxy Y. It's small, sturdy, has swype input and has great battery life. Gmail, reader & facebook over 3G or wifi. The price: just $140!!! I used to try high-end phones and then go back to low-end Nokias. Now, I'm not going back to my $40 Nokia and I'm definitely not going to pay $700+ for an iPhone that won't even have Swype. edit: extra sentence
- tluyben2 15y ago
  A lot of people are buying, just for the hell of it, Androids from Chinese outlets like Aliexpress as well. Those are not brands, but they are really cheap; so cheap you don't care at all if they break/fall (I don't agree with that sentiment, but I know a lot of people do). There are Android 2.3 pads there for $50 (not to mention hackable Linux phone watches). Now if only you could upgrade Android without restrictions. And, while there still is crisis everywhere, I see people selling them here on markets; they buy them from Alibaba in sets of 20-50 and sell them on a sunday market to 'fortunate but not as fortunate to pay for a $140 phone'. Edit: added Linux phone watch, disclaimer; never tried one, but a friend did and he says it's great fun for tinkering.
codex 15y ago
Android is the new Nokia: the lowest common demonimator phone; the default. Or, to cross realms, it's the new Windows. While Apple costs carriers a pretty penny, carriers get a share of the advertising revenue from Android based web searches, and they can preinstall whatever carrier apps they want on their Android devices, unlike on the iPhone.
- bad_user 15y ago
  Don't get me wrong, but this argument sounds like sour grapes. Another way to look at it is that Android is an open platform that people install on anything they want. And if it's open for users, then it's also open for carriers, which goes without saying. Also, if low common denominator phones are anything like my Galaxy S, then Apple is screwed ;)
  - jorgecastillo 15y ago
    "open for users" this is not true, for all intents and purposes, Android is as open for users as iOS, but unlike Android iOS is not full of bloatware from the carriers. If you want to get the most out of your Android phone, you have to install community mods no different from an iPhone. My phone costed $3000 MXN and it was paid in cash, and I feel it was no worth it. I just hope one day (when my warranty expires) my phone gets a mod, because right now my phone is not supported. My next phone is certainly not going to an Android one. If you have the cash go for an iPhone, if you don't maybe Windows Phone is better? P.S. Android is definitely the Windows of the smartphone world, but unlike on PC you can't replace it with the OS of your choice.
    - bad_user 15y ago
      With iOS: * there are no phone models available that allow to root your device without jailbreaking, a process that voids your warranty * you cannot install software from third-party sources, unless you jailbreak it * as a developer you cannot distribute software from your website, unless you want to limit yourself to nerds that have jailbroken their device * you cannot build your own device with iOS on it * certain classes of software, like phone number blacklists, are banned from the iTunes store, but are allowed on the Android Marketplace * the source code for iOS is not available. This means no forks are possible (e.g. the Kindle Fire) PS: don't confuse openness with convenience. Unlike Windows, if Google is doing such a poor job, you can always fork it, which is why Google has to play nice. Also, I love my Galaxy S and I only paid $100 for it. And I also own an iPhone 3GS which is gathering dust.
16s 15y ago
That's roughly 250 million per year.

120 points by arron61 15y ago

byoung2 15y ago

I wonder what number of distinct users is. Once you go Android, you tend to stay there. Between my wife and me, for example, we have had 6 Android phones (1 HTC Hero, 2 HTC Evo 4Gs, 3 HTC Amaze 4Gs), and 5th Android tablet (2 Samsung Galaxy Tabs, 1 Asus Transformer, 1 Acer Iconia, and 1 T-Mobile G-Slate). I'm sure each activation was recorded, but there isn't really a way to deactivate a device. Even a factory reset appears to be restricted to the phone, and doesn't register anything with the carrier/Google.

Aloisius 15y ago
Goodness. Why do you own so many phones & tablets?
- trafficlight 15y ago
  I think the basic idea is "one is good, six are better".
  - throw_away 15y ago
    getting a screen extender to stitch together all eleven devices (don't forget the five tablets) would be amazing.
- byoung2 15y ago
  My wife got the HTC hero first. That turned us on to Android. Then we both upgraded to the HTC Evo. Then we both switched to TMobile and got the HTC Amaze. I had mine a month before I lost it. Insurance replaced it with a new one. The tablets, the first Galaxy tab was a Sprint one with a contract, which was returned for a WiFi one. It then got sent to the Philippines so my father in la could use it for video chat. The Acer iconia and the Asus transformer are so my wife can have one that fits in a purse and one for a laptop replacement. The g slate is the extra one, but since it has a sim card, well use it for travel.
dangrossman 15y ago
If you own 11 Android devices, you're probably in the top 10% of earners in this country. Smartphones as a whole aren't near 50% of cell phones in the US; the plans are still prohibitively expensive. I think the case of a single person owning more than one Android device is a very rare one.
- deleted 15y ago
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paperwork 15y ago
>Once you go Android, you tend to stay there Interesting, I've heard the opposite. My brother knows several people who started out on Android, but switched to iphone. He ended up switching from learning to do Android apps to iPhone apps.
- jlgosse 15y ago
  Going to have to say that I've had a much better experience with iOS than any other platform. In the past three years I have moved in the following sequence: - Windows Mobile (Motorola Q) - Various BlackBerry Devices (Curve, Storm, Torch, etc) - Android (Nexus One) - Windows Phone 7 (Samsung Focus) - Android (Nexus One, again) + iPad 2 - iOS (iPhone 4S) Having dabbled in J2ME, BlackBerry, Android and iPhone development, and having used all devices for a minimum of two months, I can tell you that,] if for some crazy reason, I decide to jump off the iOS boat, I will be going straight to Windows Phone 7 and not Android. In terms of overall UX/UI and general happiness, I've found that the top three platforms are represented as follows: 1. iOS 2. WP7 3. Android With regards to overall ease-of-development and awesomeness of API, as well as general happiness from developing for particular platforms: 1. iOS 2. Android 3. BlackBerry Obviously just my own perspective, but I think this gives me enough authority to recommend a platform to a particular user when asked.
  - diminish 15y ago
    Trying both ios,blackberries etc, I deployed 12 androids in the family. I like its flexibility, and being a programmer, I sometimes download roms. Android gives a lot of freedom. I didnt like ios, mainly no widgets, no context menu standardized and too many buttons and button clicks, no true multitasking. it is for single threaded people, because it puts you in a mode where you have to go one by one. Android is truly a swiss army knife and talks to all out needs. I have so many options. For example for international travels i have a smaller android, my father insists on a dual sim. Android tablets add to the diversity. Wp7, blackberry and ios lack in diversity and free customization options. I suggest everyone to try Androids. There is one for your taste.
    - 15y ago
untog 15y ago
Once you go Android, you tend to stay there. I think that's conventional wisdom- and I think it's wrong. I went from Android to WP7, because I am a weird UI obsessive. But my girlfriend has an Android and is due an upgrade- and she's sick of it. She's likely going to get an iPhone.
- vosper 15y ago
  Being "a weird UI obsessive" is a very small subset of users, given that if you asked a typical smartphone user what "UI" means a majority of them probably couldn't tell you.
  - byoung2 15y ago
    I'd agree with that, but now that you mention it, I can say that I like HTC Sense UI better than stock Android or Samsung/Motorola UIs
  - untog 15y ago
    Sure, that's why I was describing myself as an exception to the usual case. And why I put forward the case of my girlfriend, who definitely isn't a UI obsessive, but is leaving Android.
rjd 15y ago
Well both my parents have replaced android phones with iphones because they had trouble using them. I had a cheap LG that went flat continuously and I gave it away and went back to a feature phone so I could use the phone for the purpose I need it. I know a few people who are sysadmins with android, but I also know more sysadmins with black berries. I don't know anyone who isn't a sysadmin that has an android phone, most people I associate with tend to be in sale or design... so probably no surprise all of them use iphones.
ugh 15y ago
It seems to me that Android would be the easiest to switch away from. Not so much for any technical reasons, rather because of the mindset most Android buyers (I know) have. Android is the default choice if you don’t want an iPhone. It’s the default and generic smartphone. All people who have Android phones I know don’t care about the OS at all. They may like the phone (Look at my nice new Samsung smartphone! Isn’t this HTC phone cool?), they know nothing and don’t care one bit about the OS.
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  "All people who have Android phones I know..." Selection bias alert. I have an android phone that's nearly two years old, and I bought it specifically for the OS.
  - ugh 15y ago
    Yeah, selection bias alright. I just think I have the more plausible selection bias. That's all :-) If you are selling nearly a million phones per day it's not the geeks who are buying (don't get me wrong, geeks are buying tons of Android phones – but they are a minority), it's normal people. And normal people don't buy for the OS (at least if it's not the iPhone). It is my very clear impression that Android phones have become the default generic smartphone. People who want a smartphone (and in all likelihood also people who don’t even know they want a smartphone) but don’t know anything more specific than that will (with high probability) walk out of the store with an Android phone. The carriers’ marketing speaks to that and also how they place those phones in their stores. Sure, the iPhone gets its stand and Nokia gets its stand but the big table in the middle is full of Android phones at all price points. (And, by the way, no big Android logo anywhere. If there are logos at all it’s the logos of the manufacturers.)

arron61 15y ago

Andy Rubin: "...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." So it seems like a new device only.

jamesaguilar 15y ago
I wonder why they don't just use a word that people understand.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  If it's a new device that is activated by the carrier, then it's a new "sold" device. So the numbers signify 700,000 Android devices sold per day.
- arron61 15y ago
  They don't sell the phones so they don't know how many are sold. The only count they have is all the activations that are coming from every new phone. I don't think there can be a better measurement for them than this.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Because if the used the word sold, the Internets would be full of people claiming, that the products were just hauled from factories to sellers warehouses, where they are sitting and not being bought by anyone.
moocow01 15y ago
Does this take into account people who are upgrading to a new Android phone from an old one? If not it could really impact the metrics if one is looking at this as a measurement of new entrants into the Android ecosystem.
- Maxious 15y ago
  This metric is used is because Apple uses it for their iOS devices in keynotes. Surely both platforms could use "app store accounts with their first device added" per day as a metric if they wanted to. And for Android, you'd want to know what version these activated devices are - no reason a 1.5 device couldn't still be activated today even if the app ecosystem has seemingly moved on.

dave1619 15y ago

If Steve Jobs was still around he would not be happy about this.

danielharan 15y ago

That sounded way too high. But then, holy crap: 1 billion people buying a device once every 3 years is ~ 1 million a day. Wow.

diminish 15y ago
2 years is a better interval.
- whatusername 15y ago
  Not over 1 billion people it's not. There's a lot of families that use hand-me-down phones. Consider the scenario where Mum gets a new Phone every 2 years and Dad gets her old one when she's done. The phone has a 4 year life. Averaging it out (over the richest 1billion people in the world) and 3 years is possibly a pretty close figure.
  - cryptoz 15y ago
    I highly doubt the richest 1 billion have anything at all to do with the majority of Android phone purchases. Countries like Nigeria (140,000,000 people) and Kenya (40,000,000 people) are starting to see their populations going from no-computers to everybody-has-a-smartphone. Most people there may never own a PC but will move straight to cheap, open source smartphones. I would bet that Android's growth numbers are a majority of new users and a minority of returning users. The platform's only been popular for a single "update cycle" anyhow. 3G networks are popping up in the poorest parts of the world and people are buying phones there.

azakai 15y ago

It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and Microsoft are going to try to stop Android, but it looks like they are having little or no effect. Lawyers get paid, some silly patents get worked around, but that's about it it seems.

nextparadigms 15y ago
Not to mention that it seems most of Microsoft's patents are worthless when they are tested in Court. 6 out of 7 of, which I assume are some of their best patents if they used them in the lawsuit, have been declared invalid. http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=14688&NewsAreaID=2 http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseI... If the manufacturers currently paying Microsoft patent fees man up and take Microsoft to Court, they could break free, too, or at the very least pay 7 times less of what they are paying now, if their other patents are just as worthless. But seriously, how could anyone even think the current patent system is even close to being fine when most of the tested patents in Court are being declared invalid? (I believe Apple also got about 18 out of 20 of their patents invalidated in Europe). This is ridiculous.
- cooldeal 15y ago
  Motorola's press release is trying to spin the news into a positive for them. Better coverage here http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/itc-judge-issues-initial-ruling-that-motorola-infringes-microsof/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/itc-judge-issues-initial-... > ...have been declared invalid. Someone specific declared not infringing on a patent is not the same as the patent being declared invalid.
thought_alarm 15y ago
It's all about the carriers. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone. A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android. A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's configured and what software is bundled. Patent attacks against individual Android manufacturers and individual models are irrelevant. Your carrier will always have a wall of indistinguishable Android phones for the next customer to choose from.

X-Istence 15y ago

And these numbers are the reason why Android development is going to be a royal pain in the butt for a long time to come. There is just no incentive for Google to change the developer tools to be more developer friendly, to be more powerful when developers are forced to release an Android application simply because it is the platform with the most users on it. Despite the fact that from a development standpoint it is a nightmare due to differing hardware/software to the point that shops that want to develop for Android have to have 30+ devices just for physically testing. The Android emulator is absolute crap because of timing difference a bug can manifest itself in the emulator and not on the phone and vice-versa. Not only that but the quality of applications on Android devices is simply not up to par with the quality of the same applications on the iPhone. It says a lot when Twitter and Facebook wholesale take their UI designs/decisions and put them on Android devices from their iPhone counterparts.

psychotik 15y ago
Amen. I wish they also included how many different variants of Android were actually being shipped, and what version each one was. _Those_ numbers would make us developers tremble. With iOS, it's simple -- if a million iOS devices were activated today, I'd know they all ran the exact same version of iOS 5.x, and none were customized or bastardized by OEMs. At least on that front, I'm thankful to Apple (I can write a whole other rant about iOS' crappiness too, but that's not relevant here) PS: Here's an example of how Android EMs screw over apps/devs: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5358014/android-httpclient-oom-on-4g-lte-htc-thunderbolt http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5358014/android-httpclien...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- X-Istence 15y ago
  I recently read this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3362072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3362072 a post by user "calloc" which I find quite interesting. I personally work for Absio Corp (http://absio.com/ http://absio.com/) and we do Android development for the DoD and we too have found many of the issues that I've mentioned above and that calloc has found as well. At the moment we are testing on the Evo 4G, Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II, and the Droid X, with a couple of other devices mixed in. I believe we also got a new Galaxy Nexus that we are testing on. It's a pain, and we've had issues with bugs only cropping up on one device but not another (even if they have the same Android version).

theSuda 15y ago

I guess these numbers will increase as mobile vendors provide better ROMs with their mobiles. I bought a LG Optimus one to get started on Android (a year ago)and I got sick of its LG ROM in two weeks flat. Then I rooted it and put a custom ROM from XDA forums (with a custom optimised Kernel). I couldn't be more happier with my mobile's performance than this. Also I hear some new models of LG, HTC, Samsung have minimal default apps and lightweight ROMs now. So people don't have to be frustrated with un-removable built in apps and crap default home launchers. This will certainly get usability freaks (like me) interested.

rjd 15y ago

Does anyone else look at these numbers and instantly think of the shear volume of waste? With iphones thats a well over million per day. With most people already owning a phone thats a lot of superseded devices to deal with. Thats a lot of chemical waste...

cryptoz 15y ago
I think the vast majority of these users are probably on their first smartphone. For example, Android is huge in African countries where families who've never owned a computer are starting to sign up for cheap 3G plans with cheap Android phones. I bet there's a lot of waste, but I also bet that it's nothing compared to the waste from old American cars driving around and polluting. Think of what these new cheap smartphones mean for humanity - the ability for entire populations to pop on the internet that never have before, read wikipedia, etc. Surely that is worth the waste it is producing.
- rjd 15y ago
  I wasn't really referring to the 'carbon footprint' if thats why you brought cars into it. I was more referring to things like PCBs and batteries, and the chemical processes used in refining these things. Toxic and harmful chemicals appearing in ecosystems they shouldn't... when things like cell phones don't get reprocessed properly.
  - troll24601 15y ago
    The good news is that services like gazelle, Amazon Buyback, eBay Instant Sale and Verizon Trade-in are making it more likely that old phones get sold and kept in use, instead of rotting in a drawer until they're tossed into the household waste.
  - swombat 15y ago
    There are plenty of toxic chemicals in car manufacturing. Hell, cars (particularly old ones) produce these toxic chemicals continuously while you drive them! Smart phones are a hell of a lot less toxic than cars. As for the comparative benefits, we could argue until the cows come home - both products are insanely useful and life-changing - but if we simply declared them equally useful, that would make phones a better bargain due to the much smaller amounts of toxicity.

pbreit 15y ago

I'm sure the number is accurate and kudos to Google but, wow, who the heck is activating all these devices? From the people I run into I would estimate the iOS:Android ratio at 10 or 20 to 1 (San Francisco).

gbog 15y ago
Observation biais. Estimations from China: - In my office, a Web company: Android vs iOS is maybe 30 - 70 - In the subway, Android vs iOS is more like 80 - 20.
akashshah 15y ago
In my team, in the last 3 months, 6 people have bought Androids vs 2 buying the iphone 4s
buster 15y ago
In my team it's currently about even, but more and more switch over to Android. 1 year ago i was the only guy with an Android phone. Now it's even.
bane 15y ago
My day job we have 2 holdouts still using iOS, the rest went BB->iOS->Android. 2 of us went BB->Android direct and based on our experiences we eventually converted the rest. At a contract site I work at, out of 15 people on the team, only 1 has an iOS, the rest have some kind of Android variant (with 1 having a BB) two have switched from iOS to Android in the last 12 months. I wouldn't say there's significant peer pressure to switch, they just go to the store and end up with an Android device, so I expect carrier pressure is the source. An inspection of the rest of the organization (about 500 people), shows it to be about 70/20/10 Android/BB/iOS. At my startup we're 100% Android, but considering getting a couple iOS devices for development, but not day-to-day usage. I have 3 friends who are Apple diehards, you'll get their iDevices out of their cold dead hands. But the rest are currently Android users, with one switching up phones every so often just to see what the other side has. Coffee shops and trains around here (D.C.) show mostly Android phones and iPads. Very rare to see an Android tablet in the wild. iPhones are not too uncommon, but seem to belong to the younger, hipper crowd.

sunkencity 15y ago

How are they certain it's not 400' doing a factory restore or rom flush?

samstave 15y ago

That is only 10,000 years before all of humanity has one...

divtxt 15y ago
I think you mean 10,000 DAYS (which is still 27.4 years).
akashshah 15y ago
s/years/days

divtxt 15y ago

Android is taking off here in India because it's creeping into the low-end. I'm sure the same thing is happening in most countries. Last week I got a Samsung Galaxy Y. It's small, sturdy, has swype input and has great battery life. Gmail, reader & facebook over 3G or wifi. The price: just $140!!! I used to try high-end phones and then go back to low-end Nokias. Now, I'm not going back to my $40 Nokia and I'm definitely not going to pay $700+ for an iPhone that won't even have Swype. edit: extra sentence

tluyben2 15y ago
A lot of people are buying, just for the hell of it, Androids from Chinese outlets like Aliexpress as well. Those are not brands, but they are really cheap; so cheap you don't care at all if they break/fall (I don't agree with that sentiment, but I know a lot of people do). There are Android 2.3 pads there for $50 (not to mention hackable Linux phone watches). Now if only you could upgrade Android without restrictions. And, while there still is crisis everywhere, I see people selling them here on markets; they buy them from Alibaba in sets of 20-50 and sell them on a sunday market to 'fortunate but not as fortunate to pay for a $140 phone'. Edit: added Linux phone watch, disclaimer; never tried one, but a friend did and he says it's great fun for tinkering.

codex 15y ago

Android is the new Nokia: the lowest common demonimator phone; the default. Or, to cross realms, it's the new Windows. While Apple costs carriers a pretty penny, carriers get a share of the advertising revenue from Android based web searches, and they can preinstall whatever carrier apps they want on their Android devices, unlike on the iPhone.

bad_user 15y ago
Don't get me wrong, but this argument sounds like sour grapes. Another way to look at it is that Android is an open platform that people install on anything they want. And if it's open for users, then it's also open for carriers, which goes without saying. Also, if low common denominator phones are anything like my Galaxy S, then Apple is screwed ;)
- jorgecastillo 15y ago
  "open for users" this is not true, for all intents and purposes, Android is as open for users as iOS, but unlike Android iOS is not full of bloatware from the carriers. If you want to get the most out of your Android phone, you have to install community mods no different from an iPhone. My phone costed $3000 MXN and it was paid in cash, and I feel it was no worth it. I just hope one day (when my warranty expires) my phone gets a mod, because right now my phone is not supported. My next phone is certainly not going to an Android one. If you have the cash go for an iPhone, if you don't maybe Windows Phone is better? P.S. Android is definitely the Windows of the smartphone world, but unlike on PC you can't replace it with the OS of your choice.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    With iOS: * there are no phone models available that allow to root your device without jailbreaking, a process that voids your warranty * you cannot install software from third-party sources, unless you jailbreak it * as a developer you cannot distribute software from your website, unless you want to limit yourself to nerds that have jailbroken their device * you cannot build your own device with iOS on it * certain classes of software, like phone number blacklists, are banned from the iTunes store, but are allowed on the Android Marketplace * the source code for iOS is not available. This means no forks are possible (e.g. the Kindle Fire) PS: don't confuse openness with convenience. Unlike Windows, if Google is doing such a poor job, you can always fork it, which is why Google has to play nice. Also, I love my Galaxy S and I only paid $100 for it. And I also own an iPhone 3GS which is gathering dust.

16s 15y ago

That's roughly 250 million per year.