In an excellent story on the Android Invasion, Newsweek's Dan Lyons get's some new activation numbers from Android Chief, Andy Rubin. Rubin says that Google has recently passed the 250,000 activations/day mark, though only once, yet the numbers continue to rise overall.That rate is 1 million every four days, just under 8 million a month and close to 100 million activations/year. Will Google have sold 100 million more Android handsets by this time next year? It seems pretty likely.
Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt announced that they were activating 200,000 devices/day just two months ago at the Techonomy conference in Aspen. That's up from 100,000/day in May at Google I/O and 160,000/day announced at Google's June earnings conference.
The numbers have even baffled rival CEOs like Apple's (AAPL) Steve Jobs. Jobs said there must be something wrong with the numbers at a recent Apple event, "we think our friends are counting upgrades". At the same time, he announced Apple was activating 230,000 iOS devices/day. Google retorted saying, "The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services."
Android
Monday, December 20, 2010
T-Mobile opens orders for pure Android experience
Everyone hate those skins that manufacturers put on top of Android to try to differentiate their product. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer phones are coming out without some sort of manufacturer overlay to dilute that experience.
Thankfully, T-Mobile, the carrier that originally took a chance with Android, offering the G1 almost two years ago, is now offering the follow-up to that phone, the G2, for pre-order today and delivery by the first week in October. As you can see (right), it is stock Android 2.2, pure and simple. For those customers who bought the G1 at launch in October 2008, the G2 will make for a natural upgrade. Off topic:, it is hard to believe Android isn't yet two years old.The bigger question is: Why does Google (GOOG) allow manufacturers to muck up Android with their overlays without bringing much improvement with them? Danny Sullivan talked to Google CEO Eric Schmidt about just that very topic.
Schmidt's answer: Google's interpretation of Open Source requires them to let carriers/manufacturers do whatever they want with the Android OS as long as it doesn't alter the experience to a certain level. With Bing all over the Verizon Fascinate and alternative Android Markets planned, you have to wonder where that line is drawn. At the same time Schmidt mentioned that Android was selling like crazy and that the market would force the carriers to give people what they want -- if a pure Android experience was in fact, what customers were after.
Thankfully, T-Mobile, the carrier that originally took a chance with Android, offering the G1 almost two years ago, is now offering the follow-up to that phone, the G2, for pre-order today and delivery by the first week in October. As you can see (right), it is stock Android 2.2, pure and simple. For those customers who bought the G1 at launch in October 2008, the G2 will make for a natural upgrade. Off topic:, it is hard to believe Android isn't yet two years old.The bigger question is: Why does Google (GOOG) allow manufacturers to muck up Android with their overlays without bringing much improvement with them? Danny Sullivan talked to Google CEO Eric Schmidt about just that very topic.
Schmidt's answer: Google's interpretation of Open Source requires them to let carriers/manufacturers do whatever they want with the Android OS as long as it doesn't alter the experience to a certain level. With Bing all over the Verizon Fascinate and alternative Android Markets planned, you have to wonder where that line is drawn. At the same time Schmidt mentioned that Android was selling like crazy and that the market would force the carriers to give people what they want -- if a pure Android experience was in fact, what customers were after.
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