Instagram for Android goes past 5m downloads in six days

Twitter may have been abuzz with users claiming they were ready to leave Instagram after it was bought out by Facebook but it might not matter. Why not? Well for one thing, some 5-million users have downloaded the Android version of the app since it went live six days ago.

According to TheNextWeb, this makes it one of the most successful Android launches of all time. In fact it puts the performance of the OS app completely in the shade. It took nearly six months for the app to reach 5-million downloads on Apple’s native platform.

Late yesterday it was announced that Facebook had paid an estimated US$1-billion for Instagram. It’s launch on the Google Play store was one of the most anticipated in history and saw 430 000 pre-registration signups after it was announced.

Even more impressively, that app was downloaded some 2 000 times a minute after it went live.

Prior to its Android launch, Instagram boasted around 30-million users. I’m just guessing here, but I don’t think the number of people leaving in the wake of the Facebook deal will stop those numbers swelling any time soon.