The rate of iOS and Android device adoption has surpassed that of any consumer technology in history, according to the Flurry research group (www.flurry.com).

Compared to recent technologies, smart device adoption is being adopted 10X faster than that of the 80s computer revolution, 2X faster than that of 90s Internet Boom and 3X faster than that of recent social network adoption. Five years into the smart device growth curve, expansion of this new technology is rapidly expanding beyond early adopter markets such as such as North America and Western Europe, creating a true worldwide addressable market. Overall, Flurry estimates that there were over 640 million iOS and Android devices in use during the month of July 2012.

For this report, Flurry used data from more than 200,000 applications that it tracks, running on more than 640 million devices worldwide. With its application coverage, Flurry estimates that it can reliably detect over 90% of all iOS and Android devices active in the world during a given month. 

Compared to July 2011, the United States and China continue controlling the top two spots, with China dramatically closing the gap on the U.S. Year-over-year, Flurry calculates that net active devices in the U.S. grew by approximately 30 million, while China saw more than 100 million new active devices enter the market. 

At this rate, China’s active installed base could overtake the United States as early as the 2012 holiday season. Note that Flurry detects actual active devices upon which apps are running, and that these numbers will differ than reported hardware sales by original equipment manufacturers. Compared to last year, nine of the top 10 countries remain unchanged, except Brazil, which pushes Australia just out of the top 10, into the 11th position.

China leads the world with 401% year-over-year growth, demonstrating the power of country’s vast population coupled with its rapidly growing middle class, according to Flurry. Notably, all four BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are represented in the top 10-ten growth countries for smart devices, reinforcing their new stage of advanced economic development.