One of the major talking points during Google’s I/O keynote was centered on Android growth. The company announced that Android activations grew from 100 million in 2011 to 400 million in 2012. That’s 12 activations every minute with one million activated daily. Android’s remarkable growth shows in a new study from Nielsen.

Nielsen’s study of smartphone purchases in Q2 shows that two thirds of new mobile buyers are opting for smartphones. That’s pretty big news in and of itself, but the real deal is how many people are opting for Android over the other platforms. It was found that 51.8 percent of all smartphone owners own a smartphone running Android. Compare that to the 34.3 percent running iOS and 8.1 percent running Blackberry. Android is doing pretty well for itself and Google must be pleased.

To be fair, Android leads only because its available on more devices. iOS would undoubtedly be the king of the pack if Apple allowed it on more devices. Considering that Apple commands 34 percent of the market on iPhones alone is extremely impressive.

As for the Android market, Samsung unsurprisingly leads the pack with 17 percent of the Android market share. HTC is a close second at 14 percent with Motorola bringing up the rear at 11 percent. All the other Android phone manufacturers make up the other nine percent of the Android market.

Interestingly enough, Windows mobile is running on more smartphones than Windows Phone 7. Windows Mobile is still running on three percent of the world’s smartphones while Windows Phone 7 only commands 1.3 percent. That’s not a huge gap and the launch of Windows Phone 8 should help Microsoft put the admittedly subpar Windows Mobile behind them.

To the 0.9 percent using Symbian and the 0.6 percent using WebOS, you should probably get a new phone. Let’s build a world where we put outdated operating systems out of their misery. It’s better for everybody if we just embrace our Android or iOS masters.