Google activating 350,000 Android devices per day

During its first-quarter earnings call, search giant Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) offered a few more insights into its mobile initiatives, but much of the proceedings involved Google's unexpectedly low profits and its efforts in social media.
Specifically, Google's Jeff Huber said the company's mobile search traffic has increased 5,000 percent during the past two years, and that company is now activating around 350,000 Android smartphones per day. Separately, Google's Susan Wojcicki said Google's AdMob mobile advertising platform is now recording 150 million ad requests per month from Android and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS devices, a figure she said has increased 50 percent during the past four months. She also said the company now counts more than half a million advertisers using the company's click-to-call mobile advertising function.

"These are just a few examples," Wojcicki said of Google's mobile business.
Google executives also briefly discussed the tablet market, highlighted by the success of Apple's iPad. In response to a question on tablets, Google's Huber said that "tablets are doing very well. There's certainly been a lot of growth in that segment." Specifically, he said Android 3.0, dubbed Honeycomb, is built for the tablet form factor, and that Google recently introduced an advertising product that allows online advertisers to specifically target their ads to tablet devices.
But analysts attending the company's quarterly earnings conference call continued to question Google's social strategy, apparently worried about the growing dominance of Facebook on the Internet. Google launched its new +1 button earlier this month in an effort to challenge Facebook and its ubiquitous "like" button. Google executives repeatedly noted the company's social networking efforts will continue.
Further, analysts worried over Google's lower-than-expected profits. Google's net revenue rose during the first quarter, but the company's profits fell below Wall Street expectations, according to Reuters. Google's net income in the first quarter of 2011 was $2.30 billion, up from the $1.96 billion the company earned in the first quarter of 2010.
Google executives said the company continues to invest in new functions and areas. "I'm very, very optimistic about our future," said Google CEO Larry Page during a brief appearance on the conference call.