Google said earlier that new activations of its Android-based mobile devices now exceed 500,000 forevery day of the week, and are growing by about 4.4 percent every week.
The numbers surpass some of the most optimistic forecasts made by some wireless industry observers less than four months ago.
The news comes from a tweet made by Google's mobile division manager, Andy Rubin.
And it's rather interesting that Rubin's tweet referred to "Android devices". In December 2010, Rubin said that "over 300,000 Android phones" were being activated daily.
Today's 'over 500,000' number presumably includes not only smartphones, but also tablets and other devices batched together running Google TV, which is also based on Google's Android operating system.
Nevertheless, some are now saying that out of those 500,000 new activations per day, the vast majority remain smartphones. Android has hardly taken the tablet world by storm yet. That market still remains dominated by Apple.
But to be fair to others, there have been some contributions from other tablet makers-- Samsung's Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom, for example, although the Xoom has had a bit of disappoinments.
Both of those tablets run Android's tablet-centric Honeycomb incarnation, as do the LG G-Slate, Acer Iconia Tab A-500, and Asus' Eee Pad Transformer. But those three haven't been available long enough to contribute materially to the half-million per day Android milestone.
But in the smartphone segment of the wireless industry, analysts at the NPD Group point out that Android's market-share momentum is beginning to wane in the U.S., perhaps as a result of the iPhone 4's expansion to Verizon Wireless.
However, there's more than enough growth in the global smartphone market to make up any loss of sales in the United States.
For instance, IDC is estimating that global smartphone growth will surge by almost 43 percent this year alone.
When Google and Samsung unveiled their new Nexus S smartphone in December, it was the first device to use a new version of the Android operating system, providing a new breed of competition to Apple’s iPhone iOS software. Both Samsung and Google were upbeat of their new Nexus S and say it should be snapped up pretty fast, now that the holiday season is already into Week Two.
Dubbed 'Gingerbread' the new Android phone is faster and easier to use, and includes copy-and-paste features, Google said. The Nexus S also comes equipped with front and rear facing cameras, potentially allowing for videoconferencing, and near-field communication, a technology that lets people use their smartphones as mobile wallets and pay for goods wirelessly.
Google, looking to expand beyond its flagship Internet search business, is pushing deeper into phone software and mobile advertising. The Nexus S follows the Nexus One, a phone manufactured by HTC Corpthat Google introduced earlier this year.
That device had some 3G connecting issues and didn’t sell that well, hurt by consumer confusion over who would provide customer support, Google or HTC, said Will Stofega, an analyst at IDC.
“Hopefully there’s a support structure in place, because the last time people didn’t know who to call,” Stofega said. “It’s up to Google and now Samsung to demonstrate that they have learned from the past, and the new Nexus S will show us if that is true.”
The new smartphone will be available online and at Best Buy retail locations in the U.S. starting after Dec. 16. It costs $199 with a one-year contract, and $529 without one. T-Mobile USA will provide the service. In the U.K., the device will be sold at Carphone Warehouse Group and Best Buy after Dec. 20.
The Nexus One, which was unveiled in January, was sold directly to consumers by Google through its online store. Google later shut the store down after it failed to meet its expectations. This time around, Samsung will provide customer support for the Nexus S.Overall, Samsung has a good track record at supporting its consumer electronics products, and has done so for many years now. For the Nexus S, things shouldn't be any different.Google’s Android operating system, now available in more than one-hundred different smartphones, is activated on more than 200,000 phones a day. The software competes with the iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry in the smartphone market.
“We co-developed this great product with Samsung, ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest features and advancements of the Android platform,” said Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of engineering.
“The Samsung Nexus S delivers what we call a Pure Google experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest Android releases and software updates.”
Back in January of this year, handset maker THK, wireless operator T-Mobile USA and Google were all scrambling at trying to locate where the problem was in connecting to 3G networks using Google's all new Nexus One smartphone launched last week with a lot of fanfare.
In a public statement posted on a T-Mobile forum about the subject, the company said "HTK, Google and T-Mobile are investigating this issue and hope to have more information for you soon. We understand your concern and appreciate your patience."
Neither THK, T-Mobile or Google immediately replied to various requests for comment.
According to the complaints, THK's Nexus One smartphone fluctuates widely between 3G and EDGE technology and is generally unable to sustain a 3G connection for more than 20 seconds at best.
There are many reasons for Google to produce a "pure Google experience" phone to help increase Android's momentum. Mobile app developers need to have early access to a new operating system to make sure their apps will work well on the new phone.
Google's Android operating system allows wireless carriers and handset makers to dictate the pace at which their customers receive Android updates, meaning some app developers on one carrier might not be able to see new releases before customers on another carrier start running the software, and that is something that Google wants to change.
There's also even more reasons for building a phone like the Nexus S. When Google tried to launch its previous Nexus One smartphone almost a year ago, it came with plans to free consumers from two-year contracts, end exclusive deals between wireless carriers and handset makers for new phones, and a few more things in between.
But there were a few issues. Wireless carriers withdrew promised support for the Nexus One, and without broad carrier support Google was forced to do exactly what it didn't want to do: offer a phone effectively locked to a single carrier.
And that's when all the problems unfolded for the Nexus One. Google certainly doesn't want a repeat of this so now it is doing things differently.he Nexus S is now being promoted based only on its hardware and software merits. It's basically a 'Googlized' version of the Samsung Galaxy S, with the near-field communications chips that Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke about last month and could one day let you use your phone as a credit card.
Known as Gingerbread, the Android version 2.3 OS will bring a new virtual keyboard and a simpler user interface when it ships with the Nexus S on December 16.
It will be interesting to see just how the new Nexus S is acclaimed by the wireless industry and how well it will sell in Best Buy stores, given the failure Google experienced with the Nexus One back in January 2010.
Google has now chosen to concentrate on its original Android promise of giving wireless carriers and handset makers around the world a free, competitive smartphone operating system to serve as a hedge against Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerries.
Coming back to the Nexus One, it took only a day or two in January for users to discover that it had trouble connecting to 3G networks; not a good thing!
At that time, handset maker THK, wireless operator T-Mobile USA and Google were are all scrambling at trying to locate where the problem was in connecting to 3G networks using Google's Nexus One.
In a public statement posted on a T-Mobile forum about the subject, the company said "HTK, Google and T-Mobile are investigating this issue and hope to have more information for you soon. We understand your concern and appreciate your patience."
Neither THK, T-Mobile or Google were immediately available to various requests for comment.
According to the complaints, THK's Nexus One smartphone fluctuated widely between 3G and EDGE technology and was generally unable to sustain a 3G connection for more than 20 seconds at best.
However, no problems were reported with the device's Wi-Fi connection. And user complaints over the Nexus One didn't stop with its 3G connectivity either. Many Google Forum posts indicated that a significant amount of frustration with customer service, with widespread reports of mobile users failing to receive order confirmations even three days after purchasing the Nexus One.
Forums on both Google's and T-Mobile's support sites were flooded with complaints that the Nexus One was frequently unable to connect to T-Mobile's 3G network, reverting instead to the mobile carrier's much slower EDGE network.
Complaints also came in over the eligibility requirements for the Nexus One discount. Existing T-Mobile customers had to pay up to $380 to get the Google Nexus One, whereas a new customer could get the device for just $180.
And making matters even worse, T-Mobile customers adding data plans to their package would be able to get the device for $280. The THK's Nexus One smartphone also could be bought without a contract for $530.At that time, Google had provided no indication if it planned to change the price plans on the handset, and declined to comment any further.
Mobile app developers can start working with many of the features that Google's Android operating system has to offer in the wireless and mobile segment.
Late yesterday, Google has finally released its long awaited SDK (Software Developers Kit) for Android. The newest release is called the 2.1 version.
Manufactured by mobile handset maker THK, the Google Nexus One is currently the only Android device running Android 2.1.
Source: Google.
