Google Says 850,000 Android Devices Activated Every Day

[webfact]

Google says 850,000 Android devices activated every day

BARCELONA: -- Google said Monday in Barcelona that 850,000 Android devices - mobile phones and tablet computers - were being activated every day as the software continued to dominate the smartphone market.

The US search giant, which created the Android operating system, issued the figures at the Mobile World Congress phone trade fair in Barcelona. It said daily activations, in which new devices connect online to Google’s servers, were up 250 per cent from a year ago.

There were now more than 300 million Android devices in use worldwide, the company added.

Its download platform, which offers application programs for the Android smartphones and tablets at prices starting from zero, had increased its product range from 150,000 to 450,000 apps in the last year.

Google allows a range of mobile phone manufacturers to commercialize the Android operating system, but critics complain that there are too many versions of Android on the market.

Some brand new products unveiled at Mobile World in Barcelona even run on Android 2.3, also known as Gingerbread, rather than the newest version, Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich.

-- The Nation 2012-02-28

[happysanook]

in the last 6 months their market share has doubled.... they are putting a serious wasting on iphone. though the new windows os is supposedly quite slick and ready to take a portion of the pie...

[nikster]

A bit skeptical on their absolute figures but no doubt Android is taking off big time - seeing more and more Android phones out there in Thailand, whereas a year ago it was really very rare and usually only farangs having Android devices. Now I see students and normal middle class Thais with them.

IMO as it should be - Nokia had 34% of the market in its heyday so that's where the iPhone can go IMO. And the rest is going to run Android...

[nikster]

in the last 6 months their market share has doubled.... they are putting a serious wasting on iphone. though the new windows os is supposedly quite slick and ready to take a portion of the pie...

Just a guess but Windows Phone is going to take away from Android, not from the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone, there's no particular reason to stick with it, other than "it's not an iPhone". It's the default (only) other choice. As other choices increase they'll split up the rest of the market between them. That said I don't think WP has a chance against Android as it is - Google is doing a pretty good job advancing the OS at a rapid pace... will be hard to catch up...

[lomatopo]

Numbers seem spot on to anyone who can read and do some simple math: they took the Q4 figure of 76 million, divided by 90 and factored in the upward trend.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1924314

[wana]

android phones seem to be everywhere ,loads of school kids use them ,waitress ,shop staff etc

everytime they get a minute theyre facebooking or whatever

particulary samsung but im sure HTC is seling a ridicuous number of units as well,they have so many phones

the HTC shop barely knows which one is which

i think android will get and hold the largest share for a while ,windows wont be catching them anytime soon ,if ever

[wpcoe]

I think a significant draw for the Windows 8 phones/tablets will be the fact that (supposedly) they will include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and will run (most? many?) other apps that run on desktop/notebook Windows computers. For corporate users, that may be a significant factor. But, how many businesses issue/support Apple iPhones/iPads?

[wana]

I think a significant draw for the Windows 8 phones/tablets will be the fact that (supposedly) they will include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and will run (most? many?) other apps that run on desktop/notebook Windows computers. For corporate users, that may be a significant factor. But, how many businesses issue/support Apple iPhones/iPads?

many many graphic design companies are based on apple ,my friend works in one and there isnt a pc used in the whole building

its like going into the apple store ,even the staff al use iphones and ipads

[lomatopo]

For the quote/unquote "Mobile Corporate Market", Blackberry pretty much still owns that despite their attempts to throw it away. Having Windows 8 and closely related mobile OS hardly guarantees Microsoft success. One merely has to look the their myriad missteps in the past to realize that it will require a bit more than being able to read Office files to sway corporate buyers. I am pretty sure there are countless free apps. in the Android market which allow me to read and manipulate Office files, Polaris Office being just one.

Yes, Apple desktop products are very extremely popular in the Education segment, as well as the Creative one.

[wpcoe]

Can third party mobile apps create and modify MS Office documents while out in the field? Would such apps be as willingly supported by corporate IT departments as the native Windows apps?

Can BB, Android or iOS host custom in-house Windows apps? It remains to be seen if such custom Windows apps will run on mobile Win8, but if they do, it'd be a nice leg up on the competition.

Corporate IT departments are big on standardization for simplicity of support. They may even only support a given product line (such as specified Lenovo or Dell models, when a Toshiba, Sony or Apple would do just as well), and restrict the loading of any personal software on said computers. Supporting Windows 8 mobile units would be consistent with that support simplification, no?

[happysanook]

Can third party mobile apps create and modify MS Office documents while out in the field?

yes...there are more than a few highly rated apps for android for creating and editing MOD.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[nikster]

Read an interesting article recently that pointed out Microsoft's biggest failing in the tablet market - that is not porting office. And letting people figure out that they can get work done without Office.

http://minimalmac.co...ts-biggest-miss

Personally I never understood people's attachment to Office - for as far as I can remember there were always better alternatives to Word. The corporate stack MS offers is complete garbage - third party products can do all the MS stack does for less money, and more importantly, much better.

Another thing is there's a rumor MS will introduce office for iPad very soon. In the spirit of the above article, they better.

And the odd thing about the Android activation numbers is the absolutely minuscule percentage of web traffic coming from Android devices. The only possible explanation I have is that the vast majority of activations is cheap low end handsets that people use to make phone calls, and not much else.

Mobile browser share for iOS 61%, Android 22%.

From: http://www.slashgear...er-61-01192272/

Edited March 4, 2012 by nikster

[lomatopo]

As an Android user I rarely use a browser, why would I when I have so many apps. which fulfill the same purpose, more efficiently with less network bandwidth usage? I'd estimate that I use a browser for less than 5% of my total bandwidth. I am currently at 8.2 MB for my browser on a total of 209 MB since my last billing refresh.

Maybe Apple users haven't figured out how to do that? Or don't feel the need to use because they already have a bundled data plan? Who knows?

http://www.netmarket...d=0&qpcustomd=1

Edited March 5, 2012 by lomatopo

[nikster]

If anything iOS has way more apps. Obviously.

I think it's all the feature phones that run Android. Have not looked at phones in the mall in ages but today I went and yep the best phone one can buy for less than 5k baht are those cheapie Samsung Android devices. Sure they won't do what a G2S can do and they will probably suck at web surfing. Most apps won't run on them or run well due to small screen and anemic processor. But are they better than your average 4k baht Nokia? Heck yeah!

If that was my budget I'd buy one too, clearly the best value. And I imagine the cheapie brands whatever they are called provide similar hardware specs for even less money. Running android.

The android explosion is at the low end. That's where the activation numbers come from, that's why web share is so low, and that's why ICS market share is very very small. Most Android devices activated today are running 2.x

What's the market share of the high end handsets? I think it would be easy to estimate based on the best selling high end handset, the Galaxy Note. Samsung releases sales numbers for this one all the time and has sold over 2M to date. Nothing to sneeze at but only a small share of the total.

Edited March 5, 2012 by nikster

[wana]

If anything iOS has way more apps. Obviously.

I think it's all the feature phones that run Android. Have not looked at phones in the mall in ages but today I went and yep the best phone one can buy for less than 5k baht are those cheapie Samsung Android devices. Sure they won't do what a G2S can do and they will probably suck at web surfing. Most apps won't run on them or run well due to small screen and anemic processor. But are they better than your average 4k baht Nokia? Heck yeah!

If that was my budget I'd buy one too, clearly the best value. And I imagine the cheapie brands whatever they are called provide similar hardware specs for even less money. Running android.

The android explosion is at the low end. That's where the activation numbers come from, that's why web share is so low, and that's why ICS market share is very very small. Most Android devices activated today are running 2.x

What's the market share of the high end handsets? I think it would be easy to estimate based on the best selling high end handset, the Galaxy Note. Samsung releases sales numbers for this one all the time and has sold over 2M to date. Nothing to sneeze at but only a small share of the total.

i think the GS2 is the handset that you should be looking at ,the samsung note is a poor comparison because its in a class by itself due to screen being almost as large as a small tablet

great piece of kit but 2 large for most peope to cram into their pockets and for women and young persons it may be uncomfortabe to hold in a smal hand

[lomatopo]

^

The android explosion is at the low end.

Yeah, sure.

I know you probably don't intend to come off as so amusing and uninformed, but you definitely have most of us laughing hysterically.

Android's share of the high end is at least equal to Apple. I think the SGS2 has sold more than 20 million units alone. But Android's allure is clearly lost on those who love browsing the internet on a teeny-weeny 3.5" screen.

Not everyone can afford an over-priced, over-hyped phone so Android addresses nearly the entire market, offering products and solutions at all price-points, from multiple vendors. Not sure how this is a bad thing, but you clearly think it is.

And not everyone has access to mobile broadband, yet. So yes, Android is building brand loyalty which I would submit will positively influence future purchases as people move up the value chain.

The Android explosion is across the spectrum, BOOM. What's wrong with Android 2.3? Why couldn't you browse on it? Heck, most cheapie Android phones have screens at least as large as that dinky iPhone? Which applications cannot run on 2.3? I think you are grossly misinformed, or just choosing to be ignorant? That's fine by the way, but it does make you look a bit like a sore loser, and very silly.

Edited March 5, 2012 by lomatopo

[nikster]

^

The android explosion is at the low end.

Yeah, sure.

I know you probably don't intend to come off as so amusing and uninformed, but you definitely have most of us laughing hysterically.

Android's share of the high end is at least equal to Apple. I think the SGS2 has sold more than 20 million units alone. But Android's allure is clearly lost on those who love browsing the internet on a teeny-weeny 3.5" screen.

Not everyone can afford an over-priced, over-hyped phone so Android addresses nearly the entire market, offering products and solutions at all price-points, from multiple vendors. Not sure how this is a bad thing, but you clearly think it is.

And not everyone has access to mobile broadband, yet. So yes, Android is building brand loyalty which I would submit will positively influence future purchases as people move up the value chain.

The Android explosion is across the spectrum, BOOM. What's wrong with Android 2.3? Why couldn't you browse on it? Heck, most cheapie Android phones have screens at least as large as that dinky iPhone? Which applications cannot run on 2.3? I think you are grossly misinformed, or just choosing to be ignorant? That's fine by the way, but it does make you look a bit like a sore loser, and very silly.

I have to say this is one bizarre post but I'll leave the strange parts as is - there's really nothing to add.

Other than you helping me out with some numbers and links to prove my point that is - 20M SGIIs were sold in 10 months. That's a lot - but do the math and you'll see that this means 66,000 high end handsets per day. That's less than 8% of 850,000. Without any further digging ask yourself (once you have calmed down a bit, that is) isn't it normal that lower priced devices sells in higher numbers? That's the whole point after all...

BTW nothing to win or lose here?! Competition is always good isn't it? Although if I was losing, I'd really love to lose like Apple is losing - with 75% of the total profits in mobile phones.

http://www.asymco.co...y-and-revenues/

Edited March 5, 2012 by nikster

[wana]

^

The android explosion is at the low end.

Yeah, sure.

I know you probably don't intend to come off as so amusing and uninformed, but you definitely have most of us laughing hysterically.

Android's share of the high end is at least equal to Apple. I think the SGS2 has sold more than 20 million units alone. But Android's allure is clearly lost on those who love browsing the internet on a teeny-weeny 3.5" screen.

Not everyone can afford an over-priced, over-hyped phone so Android addresses nearly the entire market, offering products and solutions at all price-points, from multiple vendors. Not sure how this is a bad thing, but you clearly think it is.

And not everyone has access to mobile broadband, yet. So yes, Android is building brand loyalty which I would submit will positively influence future purchases as people move up the value chain.

The Android explosion is across the spectrum, BOOM. What's wrong with Android 2.3? Why couldn't you browse on it? Heck, most cheapie Android phones have screens at least as large as that dinky iPhone? Which applications cannot run on 2.3? I think you are grossly misinformed, or just choosing to be ignorant? That's fine by the way, but it does make you look a bit like a sore loser, and very silly.

, I'd really love to lose like Apple is losing - with 75% of the total profits in mobile phones.

http://www.asymco.co...y-and-revenues/

that only proves how overpriced apple iphones are ,they are inferior hardware sold at inflated prices

apple was and still is selling phones with not the most up to date spec ,its no wonder they can report huge profits

samsung are selling a technologically superior phone at a lesser price

GS2 is just better on so many levels that when u hold them side by side the iphone looks like a phone from a few years earlier

[nikster]

@wana way to go to quote out of context!!! Don't you know that's against forum rules?

Nobody is losing if Android ups their game. Everyone's winning. Period. I am excited about ICS and about the Note - ICS is a huge step, and the Note is an interesting device to me personally. Again to me personally the other Android handsets are just cheapie versions of an iPhone both in hardware and software so not as good a value. 40M - 50M people per quarter seem to agree with me...

I had my doubts with the activation numbers vs both what one sees on the street, and what the web market share says about Android. To me web market share is equivalent to high end handsets with large screens used by people with data plans who use their smartphone for so much more than just calls. I've come to my own conclusion about this above - most Android phones are low end and used for phone calls and not much else. Not going to debate this with those who apparently have a huge stake in Android's success... but I did I think say that I'd consider the Galaxy Mini, Galaxy You, and Galaxy "forgot the name" the best < 5000 baht handsets... so either you can argue that they're not, something else is better in that price category, or you'll have to accept that they are indeed the best value, and will therefore sell in heaps and gobs, and obviously then make up a big chunk of the 850k activations a day.

The counter arguments so far are really weak. "Android users use more apps than iPhone users" - yeah right, all statistics and simple common sense (more apps... 25Bn downloaded....) say the opposite. iPads may slant the results a bit towards iOS as people are more likely to surf the web on a 10" display - then again Android tablets are out there, they just don't sell, so it's not a big argument either.

[wana]

@wana way to go to quote out of context!!! Don't you know that's against forum rules?

Nobody is losing if Android ups their game. Everyone's winning. Period. I am excited about ICS and about the Note - ICS is a huge step, and the Note is an interesting device to me personally. Again to me personally the other Android handsets are just cheapie versions of an iPhone both in hardware and software so not as good a value. 40M - 50M people per quarter seem to agree with me...

I had my doubts with the activation numbers vs both what one sees on the street, and what the web market share says about Android. To me web market share is equivalent to high end handsets with large screens used by people with data plans who use their smartphone for so much more than just calls. I've come to my own conclusion about this above - most Android phones are low end and used for phone calls and not much else. Not going to debate this with those who apparently have a huge stake in Android's success... but I did I think say that I'd consider the Galaxy Mini, Galaxy You, and Galaxy "forgot the name" the best < 5000 baht handsets... so either you can argue that they're not, something else is better in that price category, or you'll have to accept that they are indeed the best value, and will therefore sell in heaps and gobs, and obviously then make up a big chunk of the 850k activations a day.

The counter arguments so far are really weak. "Android users use more apps than iPhone users" - yeah right, all statistics and simple common sense (more apps... 25Bn downloaded....) say the opposite. iPads may slant the results a bit towards iOS as people are more likely to surf the web on a 10" display - then again Android tablets are out there, they just don't sell, so it's not a big argument either.

factual statements are allowed on thai visa,apple phones do not always use the most cutting edge hardware (processors ,gpus ,cameras etc )

but they often charge more than companies with higher end specifications

it stands to reason they can make huge profits, you dont like it because i didnt prove that point ,you proved it yourself as an apple fan

[lennois]

that only proves how overpriced apple iphones are ,they are inferior hardware sold at inflated prices

apple was and still is selling phones with not the most up to date spec ,its no wonder they can report huge profits

samsung are selling a technologically superior phone at a lesser price

GS2 is just better on so many levels that when u hold them side by side the iphone looks like a phone from a few years earlier

huh? Last I checked the 4s is blowing away the sgs2 on benchmark tests. Maybe it's that horribly cheap plasticky build quality of the SGS2 making it feel advanced? 4s has a smaller screen as a design decision, other than that it feels a lot more premium than the sgs2 (and case materials lot more expensive i presume)

And I prefer android btw before the fanboys come out.

Edited March 9, 2012 by lennois

[wana]

that only proves how overpriced apple iphones are ,they are inferior hardware sold at inflated prices

apple was and still is selling phones with not the most up to date spec ,its no wonder they can report huge profits

samsung are selling a technologically superior phone at a lesser price

GS2 is just better on so many levels that when u hold them side by side the iphone looks like a phone from a few years earlier

huh? Last I checked the 4s is blowing away the sgs2 on benchmark tests. Maybe it's that horribly cheap plasticky build quality of the SGS2 making it feel advanced? 4s has a smaller screen as a design decision, other than that it feels a lot more premium than the sgs2 (and build materials lot more expensive)

And I prefer android btw before the fanboys come out.

which benchmarks are these ? being made from plastic is hardly a benchmark

there are now thin metal covers to replace the plastic backing ,they cost 99c on ebay IF a metal feeling phone is important to you

[lennois]

which benchmarks are these ? being made from plastic is hardly a benchmark

there are now thin metal covers to replace the plastic backing ,they cost 99c on ebay IF a metal feeling phone is important to you

http://littlegeeko.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/anandtechs-iphone-4s-performance-benchmark-800mhz-a5-fast-enough/

And lol at a metal cover

[wana]

which benchmarks are these ? being made from plastic is hardly a benchmark

there are now thin metal covers to replace the plastic backing ,they cost 99c on ebay IF a metal feeling phone is important to you

http://littlegeeko.w...a5-fast-enough/

And lol at a metal cover

this is a

cheap looking study with likey biased results

look at the youtube comparsions where they do real tests side by side and the iphone falls behind miserably on such tests as browser speed,gps ,screen quality ,flash video playback etc etc etc

the ones i have watched all had the galaxy s2 far in front on real app usage (the things that matter )

i dont care if everyone buys iphones ,i just dont like it for me ,i hate macbooks also ,i detest using my wifes even to check the internet