It was just days ago at the launch of the new Motorola DROID RAZR line up of phones that Google Chairman Eric Schmidt announced that they have crossed more than 480 million Android activations.
Since then, Android Product Manager Hugo Barra has confirmed that the count of officially activated Android devices have crossed the 500 million mark already. Note that Google only includes devices that use Google Mobile Services in the list of activated devices.
Products like the Amazon Kindle Fire which are based on Android – but do not come loaded with Google services were not added to this list. Considering the sales figures that the kindle Fire notched, it is an even more commendable feat that Google managed to touch the magical 500 million mark.
Google took a little under four years since the introduction of Android – to reach the 500 million activations mark. However, looking at the growth rate at which people are lapping up Android, it is likely that Google may hit the next 500 million in a much lesser time span. With low end Android handsets taking over the market share of similarly priced feature phones, the growth rate of Android even in advanced economies – where mobile phone penetration has reached its peak continues to grow.
