Google clearly feels the best way to respond to the conflicting views over sales of Android handsets is to post some actual numbers: how will 65,000 phones shipped to retail globally every day do you?

As reported by AFP, this somewhat random stats drop – made by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt – is a less than subtle response to US sales estimates posted by the NPD Group earlier in the week.

Said figures, which were later challenged by Apple, suggested more Android devices were now being sold across the States than iPhones – a claim which flew in the face of cumulative sales reports that place Android third behind Apple and RIM in terms of North America.

Top of the pops

In stark contrast, Schmidt believes the NPD's figures, which gave Android a first quarter market share of 28 percent to iPhone's 21 percent, might actually be a touch conservative.

"It looks like Android is going to be either the number one or number two player," Schmidt said in a meeting streamed live on YouTube.

"Our partners are shipping about 65,000 Android handsets per day but if you check the blogosphere you'll discover there are some reports that that number might be quite low."

Bitter fruit

Nonetheless, even if NPD's figures prove accurate, Google still has some way to go before it can claim top spot, the firm's statistics suggesting BlackBerry handsets have a 36 percent share of the market.

Apple remains the primary target for now, with Schmidt concluding by making what can only be seen as a veiled dig at Apple's current spat with Adobe.

"Our strategy is very different from everybody else's," he said. "We're trying to build an entire ecosystem of openness, the inverse of the other guys."