Android's Google Play reaches 15B game and app downloads

Newsbrief: Android device owners have downloaded more than 15 billion games and applications from Google Play (formerly Android Market) two and a half years after the service's launch. Google told TechCrunch that it hit this milestone just a few weeks ago, which means the platform jumped from 10 billion downloads to 15 billion in less than five months. The company previously said games are the most popular downloads from the service, making up more than a quarter of all downloads. Google Play is still behind Apple's App Store, though, which is nearing 30 billion app and game downloads, but the fast-growing rate of Android activations could help the platform catch up. As of last January, over 250 million Android smartphones, tablets, and other devices had been activated -- and 22.4 million are activated each month.