Android device activations unofficially surpass 1 billion mark

A few months ago, Google announced at its Google I/O developer conference that lifetime Android device activations had reached the 900 million mark. At the time, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt also confirmed that those activations were occurring at a rate of 1.5 million devices per day, a number that Google CEO Larry Page echoed during the search company’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday.

At that rate, there have been approximately 100,500,000 Android devices activated since the Google I/O keynote on May 15th, meaning that total activations should have exceeded the 1 billion plateau as of this weekend. An important caveat to remember, however, is that Android activations presumably fluctuate each day, meaning that these numbers are just approximate measures. There has been no official word yet from Google, but this is big news…

Google showed the above video at its Google I/O keynote on May 15th

This is an important milestone for Google to have achieved. Considering that Android devices only totalled 400 million as of Google I/O 2012, it has been a remarkable 14 months for the Mountain View-based company. Under the new leadership of Sundar Pichai, the Android division has experienced incredible growth, and is becoming increasingly competitive with the iPhone and other competing platforms.

The first half of this year has been witness to the release of two flagship Android smartphones in the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, alongside Google Editions of those devices running stock Android Jelly Bean. Those handsets, along with a myriad of other Android smartphones and tablets available on the market, have contributed immensely to the surging adoption rate of the Android platform.

To put the 1 billion activations number into perspective, it means that 1 in every 7 people worldwide have an Android device of some sort. Comparatively, there have been just over 600 million iOS devices sold to date — a number that should get higher when Apple announces its own second quarter earnings results next Tuesday. Windows Phone and BlackBerry remain paltry in comparison.

As the percentage of smartphone sales compared to feature phones continues to rise, offset by consumers becoming less excited about the latest and greatest devices, the next few years will be particularly interesting for both Google and the broader mobile space. I am curious to see what efforts Apple, Google, Samsung and other tech companies — perhaps Motorola — will take to remain competitive in the market.

Will the next 1 billion be more challenging than the first?

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Apple Board mods Tim Cook’s pay package to be more performance-based

According to a new filing with the SEC this afternoon, Apple’s Board of Directors has elected to modify Tim Cook’s payment package he was awarded in 2011 after being promoted to CEO. The change, which apparently came at Cook’s request, takes the one million restricted stock units he was set to receive over the next 10 years and makes the compensation more performance-based…

In the documents, Apple says that it is changing the way it divvies out bonuses in future deals with its top executives after having in-depth discussions with many of its largest shareholders. And it commends Cook for “leading this initiative by example,” saying that the CEO pushed the company’s Directors to add more risk to his pay package and that he has the “full support of the Board.”

MacRumors shares an excerpt from the filing:

“Under the adopted modification, Mr. Cook will forfeit a portion of the 2011 CEO equity award, which was previously entirely time-based, if the Company does not achieve certain performance criteria. While the Committee generally believes that a performance-based award should have both a downside and an upside component, at Mr. Cook’s request, the modification does not contain an upside opportunity for overachievement of these criteria. As a result of implementing a modification with only downside risk, the Committee has determined that a portion of the original grant should vest earlier than originally scheduled. This modification will not change the award’s original value for accounting expense purposes.”

The original award would have given Cook 500,000 shares of Apple stock in August 2016, and another 500,000 in August 2021—regardless of the company’s success. At the time the shares were granted, they would have been worth $376 million. And when Apple’s stock peaked in the fall of 2012, they were worth $705 million. Today, after a staggering 40% slide, they’re worth $413 million.

But with the new amended package, Cook will get 100,000 shares in August 2016, another 100,000 in August 2021, and the remaining 800,000 in ten equal allotments over the next 10 years. And in order for him to get the 80,000 share annual award, the Board will look at Apple’s total shareholder return and compare it to other companies. If Apple is in the top third, he gets the stock.

The details can really get confusing, but if you’d like to know more about the modifications made to Tim Cook’s pay package, you can view the full 8-K filing here. The bottom line is that Cook wants people—both Apple shareholders and employees— to know that a big chunk of his paycheck moving forward will depend on how well Apple does in their marketsand on Wall Street. Interesting.

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Saurik: 18M devices running iOS 6 visited Cydia during evasi0n’s 6 week run

Yesterday, we bid farewell to one of the most infamous jailbreaks of all time: evasi0n. Born on February 4, it lasted nearly 6 weeks before Apple finally disabled it by way of the iOS 6.1.3 software update it issued yesterday.

It certainly served its purpose though. According to Jay Freeman, aka Saurik, Cydia saw more than 18 million unique iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, running iOS 6 (or later), visit during the jailbreak’s 6-week long run…

Forbes Andy Greenberg, speaking with Freeman, reports:

“In the six weeks since evasi0n was released, however, close to 18 million devices have already been jailbroken, according to data from Jay Freeman, the administrator of the Cydia app store for jailbroken devices. He says he’s counted 18.2 million unique devices running iOS 6 visiting Cydia, including 13.8 million iPhones, 3.4 million iPads, and 1.1 million iPod Touches.”

It’s worth noting, though, that it’s quite possible evasi0n isn’t responsible for jailbreaking all 18 million devices. While they have their caveats, both RedSn0w and Sn0wBreeze have the ability to jailbreak older devices on iOS 6.

But even if it only accounted for 17 million, that’d still be impressive. As Greenberg points out, Comex’s popular JailbreakMe 3 hack was only used around 2 million times during its life cycle—remember, though, it only lasted 9 days.

The evasi0n jailbreak lasted for 43 days, and through 2 software updates. Apple finally took it out yesterday, patching multiple exploits used in the hack. Four of the update’s six security fixes were attributed to the evad3rs.

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