Sales statistics related to Android Go have not been revealed, so it's hard to tell how many phones have been sold. This makes it difficult to say if things are generally going well for the Android Go effort or not. But an important step has been taken, which could shed some light on the limits of the success of the project. Yesterday, Google Go, an application delivered on phones running Android Go, reached 10 million installations on the Play Store.

This is not an absolute proof. No doubt our application coverage means that a decent number of non-Go devices have been downloaded and installed for its data-saving utility, throwing those numbers out of reach. Google Go also started technically as Search Lite at the end of last year – which was long before Android Go phones started to be commercialized. However, it is not unreasonable to estimate that this step marks a unit of 10 million upper limit to the number of Android Go phones sold, as they all come with Google Go.

According to Gartner, Android handset sales have surpassed the combined 626 million units so far in 2018. Since selling Go's Android phones this year, Android Go handsets account for about 1.6% of sales this year. at most – again, the actual number is likely a lot less than that.

We have no idea about Google's expectations for Android Go. So we do not know if our overestimation of the envelope is a good sign for the future of Android Go or not. Whatever it may be, Google Go seems to have a lot of users, and I'm still in favor of a future where emerging market consumers will be able to afford a $ 40 to $ 50 device capable of change their life, for the better in the best case.

Google Go: a lighter and faster search
Google Go: a lighter and faster search