Google has announced that chairman Eric Schmidt will sell 42% of his stake in the search giant over the coming 12 months, which is set to earn the ex-CEO an impressive $2.5 billion.

Schmidt hopes to sell 3.2 million of his shares spread out across 2013 so as to avoid effecting the company’s share prices which were currently at $785.37 on Friday of last week. This is not the first time the former Google CEO has hit headlines this year, last week it was revealed that he had once again criticized China’s censorship and alleged hacking a book which he has co-authored, and last month he made news again by visiting North Korea.

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Eric Schmidt likes to talk big, like most leaders involved in tech companies. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Schmidt essentially declared it is the winner of the mobile war against Apple.

He compared the success of Android versus iOS to the success Microsoft had against Apple in the desktop business two decades ago. “This is a huge platform change; this is of the scale of 20 years ago — Microsoft versus Apple,” he said. “We’re winning that pretty clearly now.”

Whether you like what he says or not, statistics do show that Android is capturing 72% of the worldwide market share for the third quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Apple took 14%.

Still, how you looking at winning is probably a matter of opinion. When it comes to total marketshare, yes, Google is currently King. That said, you don’t have to be “first place” to make a good profit. Apple has a strong fanbase and is still the preferred choice for many consumers when it comes to “premium devices”.

What led to Google overtaking Apple in the mobile market is simply that Apple controls its whole pie. In contrast, Microsoft and Google have both have used approaches were they don’t have full control. Google’s OS isn’t just on Google hardware, it is pretty much everywhere. This often results in more bugs and issues than a locked down system, but it also means a larger array of devices and more control for the user.

With Apple smartphones, you either go current gen or last gen. There is no high, medium and low tiers. With Android? There is thousands upon thousands of devices meant for all different kinds of users and budgets. It’s hard to compete with that, but Apple doesn’t necessarily have to.

With Apple, its about keeping Apple fans buying Apple. As long as they keep that up, they will make money, that much is clear. Sure, they want more people buying– but they also recognize that they have a strong fanbase they can rely on as well.

As for Google, it’s all about expanding that pie. They aren’t interested in making money on their OS and/or smartphones, they are interested in getting more users using their services and watching their ads. That’s where Google makes the real money.

In Schmidt’s own words:

“The core strategy is to make a bigger pie. We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems.”

Which strategy is the better one? Honestly, I think that they both work quite well for each company. Both are making money, and both have very loyal fanbases at this point. Personally, I like both operating systems, and feel that the more competition with get, the better.

What about you, do you think that Apple or Google is winning the long-term mobile battle? Conversely, is it possible that competing platforms like Windows Phone 8 and BB10 could eventually steal some of that pie from Apple and Google?

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The Apple iPhone 4S found its way to millions of customers within just a few days of its release back in October. But many Apple fans who were waiting for an iPhone 5 were deeply disappointed with the latest iPhone. That might have helped the Android platform to become a bit more popular. According to the latest info, over 700,000 Android devices are being activated every day.

That’s according to Andy Rubin, Google’s Android chief, who announced the numbers via Google+ and Twitter late Tuesday. That means around 5 million new Android activations are made every week.

Rubin also revealed that those 700,000 activations are for new devices only and not for resold ones.

According to Rubin, “”We count each device only once. Activations means you go into a store, buy a device, [and] put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service“. That might be a reply to a comment about Android by Steve Jobs in September last year: “We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers“.

Although Rubin did not specifically say anything about counting upgrades, he did say that Google counts each device only once.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, revealed earlier this month that about 550,000 Android phones were being activated per day. But that announcement was specifically about phones. It appears that Rubin is talking about phones as well as tablets as he has mentioned “devices”.

But it is a fact that Android is already the most popular platform in the US. It’s going to be a bit difficult for Apple to hit back as it is just a single company. Android devices are made by many manufacturers from around the world with a good range in pricing for all budgets. Whatever Apple is planning, they better make it big and quick.

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