Eric Schmidt: Android Activations To Reach 1bn By The End Of 2013

Google chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt is on stage at the Dive Into Mobile conference, and he's discussing Android numbers and future plans for the mobile platform as far as global connectivity is concerned. He boasts that there are currently around 1.5 million activations each day on average, and says that total activations should reach one billion by the end of the year.

Furthermore, Schmidt says that there are currently 320 carriers in 160 countries around the world that are selling Android devices. However, Schmidt's biggest goals seems to be bringing Android to everybody, and he is adamant about reaching the $100 price point on high-end phones in order get the "next few billion people" online and connected.

Schmidt also gave a shout out to Samsung and noted that the Korean-based company is the number one smartphone vendor in terms of volume that the manufacturer produces and sells. Schmidt believes that new smartphones from Samsung and other companies will be "significantly cheaper in two years," noting that "as long as memory requirements don't massively increase, these devices will trickle down."

Of course, there's always feature phones that users can get for dirt cheap, but Schmidt says that the lack of a web browser on these devices, mixed with the lack of processing power doesn't allow mobile users to "participate." Schmidt even came packing with a T-Mobile G1 — the first-ever Android smartphone — to show off just how far Android has come over the years, saying that the phone "actually works...but it's just a little show."