Gmail has enjoyed a two-year reign as the largest Web-based email service in the world. Now, we have a clear idea of how far ahead it is of the competition as its Android app reached the one billion download mark on the Google Play Store.
According to Android Police, the app’s download tally counts the total number of unique accounts, not the total number of downloads and devices using the app. However, that doesn’t mean that there are a billion active Gmail users. The number probably also includes some abandoned and duplicate accounts.
The most recent figure for Gmail’s monthly active users was pegged at 425 million. And that was in 2012, just when Android was making its move on iOS with the Galaxy S3 and Jelly Bean. By now, the figure is definitely higher because Gmail usually comes bundled with Android phones. To give you an idea how much of a boost that can be, first quarter figures from Canalys show that 81 percent of the 279.4 millions smartphones sold worldwide were of the Android variety.
It’s not clear when the app breached the one billion to five billion install range, but Appbrain says it occurred on May 6. There are a number of apps that are about to reach the one billion download mark. Most of them also come from Google. So far, some of the apps in the 500 million to one billion install range include Google Search, Facebook and Google Maps.
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