Google is activating 550,000 Android smartphones per day, up from the 500,000 daily activations just a few weeks ago.

The news was revealed by Google during a conference call with analysts about the company?s second quarter results. Google executives also said that the success of smarpthones is helping to accelerate the company?s mobile advertising efforts.

?That is an astronomical growth rate,? said Michael Morgan, senior analyst, mobile devices, at ABI Research, New York.

What is helping to drive Android?s rate is the fact that sales for Android devices are picking up in Western Europe and other markets.

?We?re in the middle stage of Android?s adoption curve,? Mr. Morgan said.

?Android has the potential to grab 55 percent to 60 percent of the market if there is nothing else that comes along to stop it,? he said.

Over 250,000 apps
Back in April, Google said that it was activating 350,000 Android Smartphones per day.

By the end of June, the number had grown to 500,000 daily activations. At that time, Google said that activations were growing at a rate of 4.4 percent every week.

During the conference all this week, company executives provided additional numbers about Android, including that there are now 135 million Android devices that have been activated, up from 100 million two months ago. Additionally, there are over 400 different Android devices available globally.

Executives also suggested the Android Market is picking up momentum.

There are now over 250,000 different apps available in the Android Market and users have downloaded apps over 6 billion times. This is double the number of downloads from just a few months ago.

?Five hundred and fifty thousand daily activations seems like a pretty good number but nobody is really letting you dig under the surface,? said Josh Martin, senior analyst for WMS at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA.

There are a lot of questions in the mobile marketplace, especially among app developers, that broad numbers like this do not address, per Martin.

The list of questions could include how many of the activations are for phones and how many are for other devices, how many are being activated and returned, how many are high-end devices and what countries are the activations taking place in.

?Those are the types of questions that need to be answered in order to get a real understanding of Android?s potential as a revenue-generating app distribution platform,? Mr. Martin said.

Earlier this week, Google introduced a revamped Android Market that is meant to better showcase top apps and games, engage users and make downloading or purchasing products easier.

Smartphone users can also rent movies or buy e-books from the new Android Market.

Android, which Google licenses for free to device manufacturers, is under attack from Microsoft and Oracle over possible patent infringement by Android. The software companies are seeking a licensing fee from handset makers using the operating system.

If this happens, it could make it tougher for handset makers using Android to continue to offer these devices at a competitive price.

Final Take
Chantal Tode, Assoc. Editor, Mobile Marketer