Android activations soar, not very many are tablets

Google must be feeling downright giddy today with word that Android is seeing 500,000 device activations each day. That is a tremendous number, especially since it was only a few weeks back that the number of daily activations were "only" 400,000. Even more impressive is the revelation that activations are growing at a decent 4.4 percent week over week. At that rate daily device activations could hit 620,000 in just 6 weeks. Android is definitely on a good growth curve, but even with all the buzz about the Honeycomb tablets that are appearing it doesn't seem that very many of those activations are of the non-phone variety.

No one is sharing actual sales numbers, but it has been tossed around that the major tablet players have only seen a few hundred thousand sales of the top models. That is a mere drop in the bucket of total Android activations; it is certainly a far cry from the sales of the iPad by Apple.

Google is activating so many Android devices, phones or otherwise, that it really doesn't need the Honeycomb tablet to take off to compete with any company. The sheer number of phone activations puts Android firmly in a great position in the mobile space no matter what tablets do in the market. Where Google has to be careful at this point in the life of Android is to not let the drive for tablet development affect the smartphone side of the business.

The company intends to turn the next big version of Android, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, into the OS version that unifies the phone and tablet side of the platform. This is a nice goal, but it would be quite silly to let the OS get driven by the tablet side of things at the expense of the smartphone. Google would be wise to leave the dance with the one who brought it, and that is the smartphone, no question.

See related coverage:

• 5 Android apps that should be on every smartphone
• The failing of Android as a tablet platform
• HP TouchPad: Last stand for iPad competitors?
• Android Honeycomb 3.1: A mixed bag of meh
• Top Android apps for Honeycomb tablets