• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 27, 2012

The mobile industry ain’t seen nothin’ yet from Google. That was the message from Android chief Andy Rubin at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. To date, Rubin called the 12 million Android tablets sold "not insignificant, but less than I'd expect it to be if you really want to win," while adding that "2012 is going to be the year that we double down and make sure we're winning in that space."

For context, The Verge writes: “It's no secret that Android tablet sales have lagged far behind Apple's iPad, and Google's planning to do something about it.”

“We wonder if by ‘doubling down’ Rubin meant a self-branded seven-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet said to arrive by summer with a $199 price tag,” muses 9to5Google. 

Either way, “Andy Rubin … is in a pickle,” according to Business Insider. “Android tablet sales stink, and a seemingly simple solution to the problem would actually only make things worse in the short term.”

As The Verge reports, Rubin said that the biggest problem for Android on tablets is "there's no organized way for consumers to recognize it as a viable platform," and that Google wants consumers to see its tablets as part of the broader Android ecosystem.

On the bright side, the Android platform is now seeing more than 850,000 device activations per day -- up from the 700,000 figured shared back in January, according to Rubin. 

“The figures suggest that Android may be gaining some momentum again, after Apple saw a blowout $46.3 billion quarter during Christmas,” Inside Mobile Apps suggests. “Given that Android was 250 million cumulative device activations during the company’s last quarterly earnings call, this rate suggests that the platform is nearing 300 million device activations to date.”

What’s more, ”Mr. Rubin said there were glimmers of hope for the Android tablets, in particular the Galaxy series from Samsung, which he said had been the most successful tablet release running on Android,” reports The New York Times.