Let's use the power of math and calculate how many Android tablets got sold so far-- crunch the latest Android platform stats with the official activation numbers from the Google Q3 2011 financial results. The total should come to... around 3.42 million.

The calculation comes through the Twitter account of Android developer Al Sutton.

However Google's Andy Rubin disagrees-- at his opening keynote to the first AsiaD conference Rubin says there are "a little more than 6 million Android tablets out there running Google services," a total not counting other tablets.

What's the working behind the previous result? Google claims Android device activations total 190M. The platform stats show 1.8% of Android devices accessing the Android Market on the 14 day period to October 3 2011 used the tablet-only Android 3.x. Simple division does the rest.

However, one has to keep in mind these numbers only count officially activated devices-- there are certainly more tablets out there running on other Android versions and using 3rd party app stores, which would make a difference (if probably not by much).

Now we can only wonder how the forthcoming Android-based (but not Android Market using) Amazon Kindle Fire will affect such totals. Meanwhile, Apple claims it sold 15M iPads in a year...

Go Al Sutton's calculation on Twitter

Go Google Mobile Boss Andy Rubin at AsiaD

Go Android Platform Stats

Go Google Q3 2011 Results

HSPA/LTE subscribers account for 20.6% of total European broadband connections (PCs and tablets) in 2010, according to Berg Insight.

Growing by 33% Y-o-Y, HSPA/LTE subscribers in Europe reach 33.9M in 2010-- and are forecast to grow to 96M with a CAGR of 18.9%.

Berg says mobile broadband adoption varies significantly across Europe. Austria is "the most advanced market,"  with a 20% penetration rate (46% of all broadband connections in the country). Penetration rates in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland and Portugal total around 10%, while penetration rates in Belgium, Switzerland and Greece are less than 3%. 

Huawei holds a strong market in Europe (as it does worldwide), and is the biggest European vendor with 49% market share. ZTE follows with 31%.

Berg also provides broadband device numbers for Europe in 2010-- 27.4M, from global totals reaching 92.7M. 

Go HSPA/LTE Accounts for 20.6% of all PC Broadband Connections in Europe

The NPD Group reports 63% US customers intending to buy a smartphone in the next 6 months show most interest in an Android-- but 44% of both smartphone owners and customers intending to buy a smartphone also show interest in Windows Phone 7 devices. 

The analyst describes Android as a "juggernaut" making part of at least 50% of all smartphone purchases in the last 3 quarters, but it sees competition from the iPhone and the "nascent" WP7. 

Around 33% of Blackberry device owners are also "most interested" in Android as a next smartphone purchase. 

WP7 has one main problem-- lack of consumer awareness. NPD says 45% of potential customers "are still not aware of Windows Phone 7," while 50% lack interest in WP7 (46% of saying they "don't know enough about it").

OS ecosystem lock-in is the 2nd most offered reason, with 21% saying they have "too much time or money invested in another smartphone OS."

NPD concludes the Microsoft mobile OS has potential to "chip away" at Android-- but only with "the right marketing mojo, apps portfolio and feature-rich hardware." 

Go Android on Top for Now but Consumers Also Eyeing Windows Phone 7 (NPD Group)

IDC raises its 2011 WW tablet shipment forecast from 53.5M units to 62.5M, due to strong Q2 2011 performance and improving outlooks for H2 2011.

The increase in projections follows Q2 2011 totals-- 13.6M units, with 373.8% Y-o-Y growth (and 88.9% sequential growth), according to IDC. 

Apple remains tablet market king, with iPad 2 shipments reaching 9.3M units and iOS tablets in general taking over 68.3% market share (up from 65.7% in Q1 2011). 

Tablet market newcomer RIM has 4.9% of the Q2 2011 tablet market (with the Playbook) while Android tablet market share drops from 36% in Q1 2011 to 26.8%. 

IDC expects Android market share to drop further in Q3 2011 (to 26%) before gaining a growth spurt in Q4 (increasing to 25.9%) 

WebOS should have 4.7% of the market in Q3 2011, thanks to cheap Touchpad sales-- market share to drop down to zero by Q1 2012 unless HP either licenses or sells the abandoned OS. 

EReaders grow by 167% Y-o-Y in Q2 2011 (but drop by -9% from Q1), with units totalling 5.4M. IDC predicts 2012 eReader totals will reach 27M-- up from previous projections of 16.2M. 

Amazon leads the eReader market with 51.7% market share, witih Barnes and Noble following with 21.2%. 

Go IDC Quarterly Tablet and eReader Tracker