At the AllThingsD mobile conference in New York, Google CEO Erich Schmidt said that by the end of this year, the number of active Android smartphones will reach 1 billion.
More precisely, it will take Google “from 6 to 9 months” to overcome this mark. Within a year or two, the number of Android smartphone users will reach 2 billion. The catalyst for growth, according to Schmidt, will be a drop in device prices. He expects that some of the devices on the company’s OS will cost about $75 – $100.
Currently, about 750 million Android smartphones are active. Schmidt, however, did not specify whether this number includes Chinese devices, most of which do not have a Play Store and there is no synchronization with a Google account. 1.5 million Android devices are activated daily.