Washington - More than 500 000 devices running Google's Android software are being activated every day, a senior Google executive said on Tuesday.
Andy Rubin, creator of the Android operating system and a Google vice president for engineering, made the announcement in a message on his Twitter feed, @Arubin.
"There are now over 500 000 Android devices activated every day," he said.
Rubin said the number of Android devices being activated is growing at 4.4% week on week.
Google announced during a developers conference in May that 400 000 Android devices were being activated every day, up from 300 000 in December.
A number of leading handset manufacturers use the free software from Google to power their devices, and the Mountain View, California company also supplies a version of the operating system for touchscreen tablet computers.
Industry tracker comScore said last month that Android-powered smartphones had widened their lead on BlackBerry handsets in the US market during the first three months of the year.
Android smartphones dethroned BlackBerry in January by capturing 31.2% of the US market and that share grew to 34.7% by the end of March, according to comScore.
BlackBerry handsets, made by Canada's Research In Motion (RIM), ended March with 27.1% of the US market, according to comScore.
Apple was close behind RIM with iPhones commanding 25.5% of the market, comScore said.
Apple does not supply daily activation figures for its devices but the Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker sold 18.65 million iPhones last quarter and 4.69 million iPads.