First things first: the big news of the day is that Google has announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for a whopping $12.5 billion. The deal is going to have massive repercussions for the Android ecosystem, in part because it means Google will have a much stronger patent arsenal to combat Microsoft and Apple with, and in part because it may well lead to a radically different competitive landscape for HTC, Samsung, and the other handset manufacturers who have jumped on the Android bandwagon. Yes, it’s a huge deal.
All of that said, there’s a new Android stat included in Google CEO Larry Page’s blog post announcing the news: Android now has a total of over 150 million activated devices worldwide. That number is up from 130 million handsets only a month ago. And they continue to sell at a rate of over 550,000 new activations a day (this stat had been previously announced). To add some context, Apple announced last month that it’s sold 222 million iOS devices to date, including the iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone.
Looking at the numbers and the jump in 20 million over the last month, Google may actually be activating over 650 thousand devices a day, though that’s less certain (there may have been some lag time between when Google hit the 130 million milestone and when it announced it).