Android's Path to World Domination

Google today released a video showing Android's tremendous rise and how it took the lead in the fiercely-competitive smartphone sector.

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The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's YouTube clip tracks the impressive rise of Android from October 2008 to January 2011. Spikes of light, indicating regions of activations, get larger and more widespread as time passes. Two key milestones propelled the adoption of Android -- the Droid for Verizon, which pushed the platform throughout the U.S., and the Samsung Galaxy, which jump-started activations throughout Europe and Asia.
Google said it now activates around 350,000 Android devices a day, which comes out to an impressive 10 million units a month. After leading the surge of global handset sales last year, it is now in a three-way tie for first with Apple and Research in Motion.
The company is aiming to do the same to tablets as it did with smartphones. Starting with the Motorola Xoom, which launched earlier this week, companies are set to release a spate of tablets running Android 3.0, dubbed "Honeycomb," which offers an interface that's optimized for the larger screen.
Google's next iteration of Android, known as "Ice Cream Sandwich," will merge smartphone and tablet functions, closing a fork that had threatened to fragment the flourishing platform. That version is expected to be released in June or July.