Android app downloads top 3 bil. as Google profits climb

Web giant Google turned in a decent set of results for the first quarter of 2011, yet with the company still in growth mode and hiring staff at an incredible rate, there were some concerns over the company’s high spend. Net income for the quarter came in at $2.3bn, compared to $1.95bn last year, against revenues of $8.6bn, up from $6.7bn last year.

However, the quarter, which was marked by the departure of Eric Schmidt and the installation of co-founder Larry Page as CEO, made investors unhappy as costs jumped from $4bn to $5.8bn on the back of staff acquisition and marketing.

At the grand old age of 37, Page has now acquired the maturity to lead the company he started; Schmidt joined a decade ago to add some experience to the mix. Schmidt’s tenure was all about building the company out and making some money, while Page is more of a product and technology guy, so perhaps a little expenditure is to be expected.

Android is growing fast. Google said that more than three billion apps have now been downloaded from the variety of Android markets available, while 350,000 new Android devices are being activated every day.

To emphasise this growth, independent mobile ad network, InMobi, released a monthly report that shows Android global ad impression share has surpassed iPhone OS for the first time during March, with the Google backed OS impressions hitting 14.5 per cent compared to Apple’s 13.8 per cent.