Android sells 500 million units - double iPhone

Android phones have hit a new sales milestone of 500 million units - double the figure for iPhone.

More than a million new Android phones are activated every day.

Hugo Barra, Google's head of product management for Android, revealed the figure on his Google Plus page.

Google's head of product management for Android revealed that Android devices had hit 500 million sales

Barra said, 'Today is a big day for Android... 500 million devices activated globally, and over 1.3 million added every single day.'

Google's operating system has seen demand rise as customers have held off buying Apple handsets until the launch of the new iPhone 5.

A recent report by Strategy Analytics estimated that 250 million iPhones had been sold from the device's 2007 launch up until June this year.