On June 23, Eric Schmidt told the world that Google was tracking 160,000 Android devices sold per day – and just a month before that, they were at 100,000/day. Today, he revealed that 200,000 Android devices are sold every day. It’s truly amazing, especially considering the scope of other devices – as much as I hate to do this, I’m going to drag in the iDevices, and quote the figures I stated in June:
- Excluding the iPhone 4 launch, Apple averages approximately 246,000 phone sales per week
- Mac sales are estimated to be 110,000 units per week
- iPad sales are estimated to be 200,000 per week
The important caveat there is that figure excludes the iPhone 4 launch, but I’m not looking to draw a line from Android to iOS here – rather, I’m looking to establish a scope. And what a scope it is: 200,000 devices/day means they’re selling at a pace of 1.4 million phones per week, 6 million per month, and 73 million phones per year. If that doesn’t impress you, check your pulse.
NPD figures for the second quarter show that Android is the largest smartphone OS, followed by Blackberry in second (sliding 9% to 28% of the market), with the iPhone coming in at 22%. (On a related side note, the fact that the iPhone – essentially just 2 devices, now – commands over a fifth of the market is extremely impressive.)
While 3 data points do not make for a proven trend, two main conclusions can be reached from the numbers:
- Android is still growing – and quickly. May: 100,000/day, June: 160,000/day, August: 200,000/day. The numbers speak for themselves.
- The pace is slowing. I’m not going to run the exact numbers, because I have no idea what specific date the above figures are from, but obviously it didn’t increase 60% between mid-June and early-August (as it did from mid-May to mid-June).
It’s a safe bet that the number of high-profile device launches in the last few months has had a major effect on the numbers – although it’s unlikely that they artificially inflated them. Coupled with the fact that Android is moving down the spectrum into cheaper, lower-end devices, it seems like a safe assumption that the number will continue to climb.
[Source: Reuters]