By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 04:50 PM EST (01:50 PM PST)

According to a statement from Google on Monday, the amount of content on the Android Market is nearing that of Apple's App Store as it now offers over 450,000 apps, which has helped Android devices see an activation rate of 850,000 handsets a day.

The numbers were announced in a tweet and subsequent blog post by Google's Senior Vice President of Mobile Andy Rubin from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, an annual event that is the world's largest mobile industry exhibition and conference.

As the Android platform continues to gather steam, Rubin writes that the number of apps in the company's online marketplace has more than tripled since a year ago to more than 450,000, which nears the 550,000 iOS apps industry leader Apple currently offers through its iTunes App Store.

The internet search giant notes that over one billion Android apps are downloaded each month by the over 800 different devices that have launched since the OS was introduced in 2008. Unlike Apple, which tallies downloads only made from the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Google is able to count app sales from a wide range of hardware partners like Samsung and Motorola.

With the bevy of OEMs dedicated to Android, Rubin noted that the platform's adoption rate had grown 250 percent year-to-year, and estimated that about 850,000 new devices are activated each day. He goes on to say that the total number of Android devices being used around the world has surpassed 300 million.