Amid the numerous noteworthy announcements made by Google at its ongoing I/O Conference in San Francisco, the company's achievement of one significant milestone - pertaining to NFC-enabled Android devices - was apparently overshadowed by the other proceedings.

While the demonstration of Google Glass, the announcement that Google Drive had surpassed 10 million users and its iOS availability, and the Android `Jelly Bean' announcement, ruled the roost at the conference, Hugo Barra - the director of Android product management - revealed during a Thursday keynote address that Google's weekly shipments of NFC-enabled Android devices had touched 1 million units.

Highlighting the significant achievement, Barra said that 400 million NFC-enabled Android devices had already been activated; and that activations were presently hitting a rate of 1 million per day --- which means that NFC-equipped Android-based handsets now account for almost 15 percent of all new Android devices.

In the wake of the increasing popularity of Android handsets with built-in NFC technology, the Android Beam device - which was introduced with Android 4.0 `Ice Cream Sandwich' version - will soon boast some cool new features, including the ability to share videos via NFC, and the capability to pair handsets to other devices merely by tapping it.

About the increasing use of NFC technology in handsets, a 9to5 report said that if Google's current pace of shipping NFC-enabled Android handsets continues in the near future, and if Apple releases its new NFC built-in iPhone 5 in October, the major phones consumers will apparently be buying devices with this technology!