Google Play has surpassed 50 billion downloads since it was first started four years ago.
Google, best known as the world's biggest online search engine, has constantly been expanding its horizons into all spheres of technology. After conquering the search engine world, it diversified into emailing and then went on to try its hand in the Android market. Google CEO, Larry Page announced Thursday, during the company's second quarter earnings call that Google Play has surpassed 50 billion downloads.
The new milestone for the web giant follows a previous announcement at the Google I/O May 15, where the company declared that Google Play had reached 48 billion downloads. Google is rapidly growing and recently Chairman Eric Schmidt announced at Dive Into Mobile 2013 that nearly 1.5 million Android devices are activated daily with 900 million devices in total.
"At Google I/O in 2012 there was roughly 400 million, so it more than doubled in 2013. By the end of the year we'll probably be well past the 1 billion mark, and come Google I/O 2014 we're assuming that Larry will again go up on stage and announce that there is now nearly 1.4 billion," a report in Android Community stated.
Page also noted that the app developers earned more in the first half of this year than in the whole of last year, which marks the growth of the Android app market, reports Thedroidguy.com.
In May, Apple announced 50 billion app downloads and also awarded a $10,000 App Store Gift Card to Brandon Ashmore of Mentor, Ohio, as the winner to download the 50 billionth app. Apple also gave away $500 Store Gift Cards to 50 people following the winner of the first prize.
