Google refutes Steve Jobs’ activation count accusations; says 200K figure doesn’t include upgrades

“Steve Jobs started off the [Apple special event] presentation [yesterday] saying that Apple was activating 230,000 devices a day,” Seth Weintraub reports for Fortune. “Google’s Eric Schmidt last month said that Google was activating over 200,000 devices a day and growing. But Steve Jobs can’t believe those numbers are legit.”

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Weintraub reports, “He told the event audience that: ‘We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers.’ That’s obviously a direct accusation aimed at Google. He added, ‘we think we are ahead of everyone.'”

Weintraub reports, “A Google Spokesperson told me: ‘The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It’s highly likely that Steve Jobs can recognize numbers that do not add up. The find out whether Google’s numbers are sound, simply do the math.

34 Comments

  1. Android numbers are certainly helped by all the 2-for-1 sales of Android devices that have taken place over the last few months.

    Imagine what iPhone numbers would be if they were offered 2-for-1!!!

    (and wait to see how those numbers go if/when the iPhone is offered on multiple carriers.)

  2. I think it’s just a matter of time before you see the little YouTube icon and Google maps disappear from iOS. That’s why Jobs bought his own maps company and Google created a YouTube web app just for iPhone. There’s too much competition and angst lately to carry this partnership forward.

    Things that make you say hmmm:
    Ever notice that iPhone auto-correct will capitalize most company names but not google?
    

  3. We can be polite about this. It is merely a question of numbers, after all. Google’s numbers don’t add up properly. There are many honest “mistakes” that could cause that … padding and lying are not the only possibilities. Open hostility is NOT called for.
    To the point: Apple is selling a whole lot of phones – a fairly new market for the company – that are seen as among the (if not THE) best available. Apple’s earnings from this product are THE Best both by the item and by the model in the market. Apple has little to complain about. Sales are pretty good, profits are great.

  4. Steve’s words may be the truth or not, but that’s not relevent. The weird thing here is why on earth google had to respond to his statement. C’mon, google is an ad company, they don’t need enemies. They need to get along with media, including Apple channels (iTunes, appstore, AppleTV, iAd, etc). Google does not need to win an OS, they only need to make sure that they can deliver ads to end users. It is silly that they took the bait and got drag along in a competition that’s not relevant for them.

    My advice for google, if you copy apple, you are gonna end up as second best apple. I am pretty sure google should take Microsoft as Ms is declining. if google can do it right, half of Ms market can be taken over on this decade.

  5. A lot of the activated Android devices are not that great. Many of those people will be in the market for an iOS device sooner or later. For those that stick with Android or RIMM or WebOS or whatever, that’s fine. There is plenty of room for multiple players in this market. As long as Apple maintains a sufficiently large slice to secure a healthy future for its iOS devices, I will be happy. I don’t need or want overwhelming Apple dominance in everything.

  6. @ nomoremsbs: If that Hurricane is strong enough to affect Marion then it’s gonna wipe a good portion of Virginia, D.C., Baltimore, Delaware, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Boston off the map. At which point Apple’s data center is inconsequential to anyone.

  7. Apple’s NC facilities are safe… Because being only an hour or so away from Outer Banks/Nags Head, NC, and, here is the biggie, my house needs a new roof the skylight leaks and an attic fan vibrated to the point it sheared off the screws holding it in place, Earl will decidedly strike my town to lay waste to my home!

    So Apple is safe!

  8. @Not to fear Hurricane Earl
    I hope, for your sake as well as everyone else’s in it’s current path, that it changes course, and just leaves everyone with an awareness of how much goodness there actually is in our everyday lives.

  9. “Ever notice that iPhone auto-correct will capitalize most company names but not google?”

    It’s not being vindictive. Google is a noun, but, it’s also a verb. The verb, to google, does not get capitalized.

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