Google Android activating almost 5m devices a month

News in from Google’s VP of Engineering, Andy Rubin on Android’s growth:

Every day 160,000 Android-powered devices are activated — that’s nearly two devices every second, used for the first time by people from New York to New Zealand

160,000 x 30 days = 4.8m a month or just short of 58m a year.

Utterly stupendous.

This is what happens when Silicon Valley gets stuck in. This is why Android is ‘number two’ after iPhone in the mindsets of ‘everybody’.

It’s certainly not without issues. The increasing fragmentation along with slow or no reaction from Google to key developer concerns is winding up lots of people.

However, consumers are certainly adopting the platform in droves.

Good news for all those looking for Android 2.2 on their respective devices too:

To celebrate, we are open-sourcing the new 2.2 version of Android, which we call Froyo, to our partners who manufacture Android devices around the world. Customers will enjoy great new features and improved browser performance. And developers will benefit from new tools such as Android cloud-to-device messaging (which makes it easier for mobile applications to sync data).

I’m looking forward to seeing the mid-year feature and smartphone sales figures when they’re released soon. I wonder just how big a chunk Android will be.