At 3-Billion Active Android Devices, Google Is Dominating The Market

With news continuing to flow from Google I/O 2021, one of the more surprising announcements from the event may be that there are 3-billion active Android devices in the world right now. The news was reported by Google VP of product management Sameer Samat. And that may not be the full story for the OS either.

There are definitely more than 3-billion active “Android” devices

Now, the figure in question is actually around triple the number of active Apple devices in use in 2021. But the number is also slightly misleading and not to Google’s detriment. In fact, the 3-billion devices figure in question was, according to the company, pulled from the Google Play Store.

So it doesn’t factor in Android-based devices that aren’t using the Play Store. And that includes Amazon’s Kindle Fire gadgets, which are built on top of Android code. It also doesn’t account for handsets or tablets that are sold globally without access to the Google Play Store. Namely, those that are utilizing Android under the hood, without the Play Store.

Bearing that in mind, the number of Android devices that are active globally likely far exceeds the 3-billion figure given by Google at I/O 2021. But it also marks rampant growth in the market for Android over the past couple of years. Google announced back in 2017 that it had reached the 1-billion devices mark, for instance.

Perhaps more impressively, Google’s new figure is more than 500-million devices stronger than was announced at Google I/O 2019.

Google is dominating the technology space

Google’s latest announcement doesn’t only mark out its place in the mobile arena either. The spread of Android, in combination with a plethora of new Search tools, AI, and processing announcements, serves as a key indicator of Google’s place in the technology market, in general.

The company also took the opportunity presented by the event to unveil its progress in the quantum computing space, as well as advances in conversational AI. Potentially placing the company well ahead of the competition across most of the technology sector.