Google on Android Activations/Tablets

John Gruber:

In a separate article, The Verge confirmed with Rubin that Google’s “activation” numbers include each unique device only once, and don’t count based-on-Android-but-not-using-the-Google-experience devices like the Kindle Fire or Barnes and Noble Nook.

This gives Google's numbers a lot more credibility with me. But why not just state this clearly from the outset? Something about this seems off.

Apple has sold a little over 50 million cumulative iPads to date. Just me or does it seem like you see a lot more than five iPads per Android tablet in the wild?

I have never seen an Android tablet in the wild. Ever.