Google Says Half a Billion Android Devices Now Active

A strange coincidence happened just a few hours ago: yesterday, IHS iSuppli put out estimates that said that the total number of Android device activations would clear a cumulative total of one billion sometime in 2013. The coincidence kicked in when Google's Hugo Barra took to Google+ to announce that more than 500 million Android devices had already been activated since the first launch of the platform.

Admittedly, 500 million is far from a billion--it's only halfway there, after all--but it's not so much that revelation that's the important one as the one that followed. Google is, at last report, activating Android devices at a blistering pace.


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Specifically, reports indicate that a new 1.3 million Android devices are coming online every day, on average. That means that it's only going to take just over 384 days, at that rate, to activate another 500 million Android devices and clear the one billion mark. That should put it around late summer, sometime in September, to clear the goal of one billion established by IHS iSuppli. If the growth rate improves, look for the time frame to be shortened accordingly.

Either way, however, half a billion activated devices is a major achievement for Google, and a clear assertion of its overall strategy to get as many devices in play as possible. While Google's strategy hasn't been without its problems, overall, it's still a very solid way to seize market share out from under Apple, who enjoys the support of a wide and fiercely loyal fan base who generally jump at a new model.

This strategy of rapid expansion is probably one of the only things keeping Apple from seizing even larger parts of the total overall market, and keeping Android in the game. Google sustaining that growth rate probably won't be too difficult, either, as new Android-based devices come out on a regular basis to replace those that have broken, worn out, or simply need upgrading.

It's a safe bet that Google will reach that one billion mark, barring some kind of calamity, and do so before the second half of next year gets too far in. Its market share will likely let it at least keep pace with Apple, and the two will likely share the mobile space, if somewhat tenuously, for some time to come.

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