Android Market has 450K apps; Google activates 850K Android devices a day

9to5 Staff | Feb 27 2012 - 7:10 am PT

Google has a dominant presence at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) show now underway in Barcelona, Spain from Feb. 27 through March 1. The company’s Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile and digital content, shared a few updates related to the Android ecosystem, and he revealed in a blog post that 850,000 Android devices are now activated each day with the total number of Android devices around the world past 300 million.

The number of apps available in Android Market tripled from 150,000 at the last year’s show to 450,000 items today. Moreover, the Market is now recognizing over a billion downloads each month. All told, about 800 different Android devices launched to date and the company is highlighting more than a hundred new ones at its huge stand at MWC…

For comparison’s sake: Google had 11 billion app downloads and 250 million devices sold cumulatively as of Jan. 19, 2012. Apple’s App Store is currently chasing 25 billion app downloads, and the company said it sold 316 million cumulative iOS units (iPhones, iPod touches and iPads) at the end of last year. Apple’s mobile bazaar launched three years ago on July 10, 2008 and Google’s store followed three months later, on Oct. 22, 2008.