Google touts Android successes, thanks developers

Android continues to gain momentum, with over 100 million Android devices now activated, and approximately 400,000 new activations daily, the company reported on Tuesday. That number is up from the 300,000 activations daily that it had reported in December of last year, and is likely now surpassing iOS overall.

Official activation data has not been available from Apple since September of last year, when Steve Jobs said the company was activating about 230,000 iOS devices per day. Some anecdotal data indicates that this may now be nearing 300,000 per day, but it has yet to be officially confirmed.

Google also reported that about 200,000 free and paid apps existed on Android Market, with about 4.5 billion apps installed overall. This is still behind the App Store, which Apple claims holds about 350,000 apps overall, and about 10 billion apps have been downloaded.

Still, it's quite the accomplishment for a mobile operating system that just two years ago was only beginning to make inroads against Apple.

"The Android ecosystem has been moving really fast over the last two and a half years and rapid iteration on new and highly-requested features has been a driving force behind Android's success," Android product management director Hugh Barra said. As part of this, Google is working with partners to ensure devices stay up to date.

A deal has been struck that will guarantee updates to the Android OS for 18 months after the device is released, or as long as the hardware allows. Given that time frame is the typical upgrade cycle for most phone users, it is clear that Google has a desire to prevent premature obsolescence.

We want to thank the entire Android community of developers, OEMs and carriers who are pushing the platform into new areas and building great experiences for consumers," Hugh continued. "Without you, the Android platform wouldn't have grown so large in the past two and a half years."