Google announced at a press conference on Wednesday that over the course of the last six months, the number of activated Android devices has doubled. That means nearly 200 million Android devices are running around
out there right now. That’s pretty impressive seeing as this software didn’t exist three years ago. Google also revealed that close to 550,000 new Android handsets are being activated every day. This last statistic, while still impressive, is the same rate of new activations as in July and begs the question: Is Android nearing their ceiling?
Android is the leading smartphone platform in the world right now. Coupled with the iPhone, Android has pushed RIM’s BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian OS to such an insignificant market share that they’re barely worth discussing anymore. So why is Android not growing in growth? Well, the model of doubling every six months is not sustainable for one. But as a recent study from Gartner shows, the growth rate in the smartphone market itself has fallen short of projections. Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner explained Android’s rise in market share by stating in his report that “Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment, and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems such as Windows Phone 7 and RIM.”
In the end, even if Android is nearing a ceiling in terms of growth rate, it’s still doing a much better job than its closest competitor, the iOS for iPhones which is around 210,000 daily activations.
So who can boast the most users in the smartphone market? Without hesitation, Android. And it looks like that’ll be the case for the foreseeable future.
