More than 160,000 mobile phones powered by Google’s Android operating system are being sold every day, the Internet giant said Wednesday on the eve of the launch of the new iPhone from rival Apple.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, speaking to the CNBC television network at the unveiling of a new Android phone from Motorola, the “Droid X,” said his company was engaged in a “battle over the next set of mobile platforms.”

“Everybody is going to be on mobile devices all the time, every day, unless they’re asleep,” Schmidt said. “Everything is moving to mobile and we’re participating in it.

“We have more than 160,000 of these things shipping globally every day,” Schmdit said of Android-powered devices. “The momentum is phenomenal.”

Just a month ago, at Google’s annual shareholders meeting, Schmidt had said that at least 65,000 Android-powered phones were shipping every day, although he also warned at the time that the number may actually be far higher.

Google makes its Android software available to handset manufacturers and also sells its own smartphone, the Nexus One.

The spectacular sales figures cited by Schmidt would have Android handsets far surpassing those of Apple, which reported sales of 8.75 million iPhones last quarter.

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