The IDC recently projected that Android will remain the most shipped smartphone operating system (OS) over the course of its five-year forecast (2012-2016), even though its share will peak during 2012. According to the latest activation figures from search giant Google, the popularity of the firm’s mobile platform is definitely still on the rise.

Google’s Android head, Andy Rubin, posted the following message on his Twitter page: “No plans to leave Google. Oh, and just for meme completeness -- there are over 900 000 android devices activated each day”. This is up from 850 000 daily activations, which was revealed in February 2012.

The post was made in response to a rumour that Rubin was leaving Google, which kicked off when blogger and tech evangelist Robert Scoble mentioned on his Google+ account that he had heard that Rubin was planning to head up a new startup called CloudCar.

Rubin went on to say via his own Google+ account that CloudCar is, “a group of friends who I give free office space to in my incubator in Los Altos. Revel Touch (Mar Hershenson’s company) is another cool company that shares this space.  I’m not joining either one and I don’t have any plans to leave Google.”

In related news, the search giant recently announced that Google Map Maker will be available locally, enabling South Africans to add, update and share details about important places including local hospitals, restaurants, schools, places of worship, walking paths, dams and more.