It was a very Merry Christmas for Google’s mobile operating system this year.
As Google’s Android head Andy Rubin wrote on Google+, “There were 3.7M Android activations on 12/24 and 12/25. Congrats team-Android!”
While Rubin didn’t break down how many of those were on Christmas Eve and how many came on Christmas Day, there’s no doubt that at least one of those days set a new Android activation record.
The rate at which new Android-powered phones and tablets are being activated has grown 40% in just six months. Earlier this month, Google made waves by saying that more than 700,000 Android devices were being activated on a daily basis.
But for the two big holiday dates that number was doubled.
Of note, Android activations refer only to when a brand new device is taken online for the first time, so that number doesn’t even include any used phones that might have been gifted over the weekend.
Mobile analytics group Flurry said the number of iOS and Android devices activated, combined, reached 6.8 million on December 25. Of course one would expect Christmas to be perhaps the biggest activation day of the year, it’s worth noting that is more than double the number of activations on Christmas Day last year.
