More than 500,000 devices running Google's Android software are being activated every day, a senior Google executive said on Tuesday.

Andy Rubin, creator of the Android operating system and a Google vice president for engineering, made the announcement in a message on his Twitter feed, @Arubin.

"There are now over 500,000 Android devices activated every day," he said.

Rubin said the number of Android devices being activated is growing at 4.4 percent week on week.

Google announced during a developers conference in May that 400,000 Android devices were being activated every day, up from 300,000 in December.

A number of leading handset manufacturers use the free software from Google to power their devices, and the Mountain View, California company also supplies a version of the operating system for touchscreen tablet computers.

Industry tracker comScore said last month that Android-powered smartphones had widened their lead on BlackBerry handsets in the US market during the first three months of the year.

Android smartphones dethroned BlackBerry in January by capturing 31.2 percent of the US market and that share grew to 34.7 percent by the end of March, according to comScore.

BlackBerry handsets, made by Canada's Research In Motion (RIM), ended March with 27.1 percent of the US market, according to comScore.

Apple was close behind RIM with iPhones commanding 25.5 percent of the market, comScore said.

Apple does not supply daily activation figures for its devices but the Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker sold 18.65 million iPhones last quarter and 4.69 million iPads.

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