Android is fast approaching an astounding 1 billion users worldwide, according to ex-CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt. The milestone will likely be hit in the next six months, placing it well within the borders of 2013.
With an apparent 1.5 million activations per day, a rate that is constantly increasing, it was only a matter of time.
Schmidt didn’t mention if these were merely Android accounts, or if they were active Android accounts. Still, the accomplishment is impressive either way.
Should Android continue to grow along its current trends, two billion users is only a year or two away. Of course, as with all digital account systems, 2 billion accounts doesn’t mean 2 billion unique accounts; there will be a lot of double or triple-ups. Still, by the end of 2013 a decent chunk of the world’s population will apparently be using Android in some way in their daily lives.
The numbers don’t necessarily reflect a popularity of choice in many regions. Android is renowned for making very cheap smartphones with slimmed down hardware. In the current mobile market, it’s possible for Android manufacturers to turn out incredibly cheap smartphones based on tech from 2 or 3 years ago, meaning no R&D costs are negligible. In fact, there’s little from stopping the sale of refurbished older models in developing countries where smartphone choices are slim to none.
The increasing affordability of smartphone tech is slowly pushing the old feature phone market in to redundancy. With Android leading the charge, it’s no wonder than there are far more Android users globally than any other mobile OS. In a country where an iPhone is a luxury, a budget Android may be an affordable goal.
Even in the US Best Buy offers unlocked Android smartphones for under $90. Get lucky on Ebay and you can pick one up for as low as $25. A phone designed for, or that is sold in a developing country is likely to be even cheaper.
The further spreading of global wireless broadband networks, too, is making smartphones a more tempting choice than feature phones. After all, what good is a smartphone if you can’t get at least 3G?
Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Android has done pretty well cornering the budget market both in and outside of the ‘developed’ world.
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