Andy Rubin, rumor smasher: Not leaving Google; 900,000+ Android activations daily

Gotta love a good unfounded rumor on a slow Sunday afternoon. Or not. 

Regardless, Robert Scoble this afternoon set up a trial balloon to see what folks though about the possibility of Andy Rubin possibly leaving Google for a startup called CloudCar. Wrote Scoble on Google+

Today I heard that the head of Android, +Andy Rubin, will soon leave Google and head to a new startup called http://www.cloudcar.com/

 

Now, that rumor has two purposes: one, it might be true, in which case I start thinking about what that means for Android. I certainly will be looking for those signs when I attend the Google IO conference.

it didn't take long for Rubin to set the record straight.

How a rumor gets factualized: Cloudcar are a group of friends who I give free office space to in my incubator in Los Altos.  Revel Touch (Mar Hershenson's company: www.reveltouch.com) is another cool company that shares this space.  I'm not joining either one and I don't have any plans to leave Google.  See you on the 27th!

Roger that. Over and out. 

So Rubin has stated that there are over 900,000 Android activations daily -- up from 850,000 just a couple months ago at MWC. Before we delve into just how big that number is, let's revisit what each of those activations are. When a new Android device with a cellular radio has a Google account signed into it, it's counted as an activation. Each device only gets counted once -- not when you flash a new ROM, or when you sell it, just the first time the device is registered. This means that over 900,000 people are buying new Android devices every day. Or 27,000,000 every month. Or 328,500,000 a year at that rate. That's a lot of Android.

Looks like we'll be seeing plenty of Andy Rubin, and plenty of Android activations for the time being.

Source: +Andy Rubin. More: +Robert Scoble

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