Google used the opening of its Google I/O press conference in San Francisco to dish some stats detailing the enormous growth the OS is currently enjoying.

According to director of Android product management Hugo Barra, 400 million Android devices have now been sold since the operating system was first launched.

The numbers game

That's up from the 100 million devices that had hit the shop shelves at the same point in 2011.

Such acceleration is illustrated by Android's daily activation rate, which Barra said now sits at 1 million new devices every day.

"To put that figure in some context, that means 12 new Android devices are activated every second of every day," clarified Barra.

Google also used the press conference to lift the lid on Android 4.1, better known as Jelly Bean, with a new Android-branded tablet also expected to be unveiled later on.