Android activation surge continues

Newsbrief: Consumers have activated more than 250 million Android smartphones, tablets, and other devices, and have downloaded over 11 billion applications and games from Android Market. That download rate is increasing fast for Google's Android platform -- just six weeks ago, the company announced that it hit the 10 billion apps downloaded milestone. It also revealed that games were the most popular download type, making up for more than a quarter of that 10 billion. At its current rate, consumers are downloading, 667 million Android apps per month (it took the platform 22 months to reach 1 billion after it launched in 2008). The rate of Android device activations is also rising, and is now at 22.4 million activations per month. Though Google has not disclosed revenue generated specifically from its Android business, the technology company reported on Thursday that its total earnings for the fourth quarter (ending December 31) crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time, jumping to $10.58 billion.