Tech

There are now more than 2 billion devices running Android

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Google IO 2017 Sundar Onstage 3
Google

Android has passed a formidable milestone.

Google's mobile operating system is now used on more than two billion active devices around the world — smartphones, tablets, and so on.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the figure on Wednesday during the opening keynote at I/O, Google's developer conference in California.

The exec reeled out a list of stats for Google products. YouTube's one billion users watch one billion hours a day. Google Maps' users navigate more than one billion kilometers a day. And Google Drive's 800 million-plus users upload three billion objects a day to the cloud file-hosting service.

But in sheer numbers, they all pale in comparison compared next to Android itself.

For context, there are only (only!) aroun 700 million active devices running iOS, Apple's mobile operating system. UBS estimates that it will take Apple until 2019 to surpass the one-billion mark.

So while Apple's devices might be more glamorous, it's still nowhere close to beating Google in the numbers game.

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Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits. The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbotDeel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growthPrivate islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billionsGaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreamsA drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.