A million Optimus Ones say LG made a smart bet on Android

As with many cellphone manufacturers trying to figure out how to make the leap into superphones, LG’s bet on Google’s Android operating system is turning out to be a wise decision. The company announced today that its budget-minded Optimus One is its fastest-selling phone ever, hitting 1 million units sold worldwide in 40 days.

The Optimus One is currently available in the US as the Optimus T on T-Mobile for $29.99 (after a mail-in rebate and two-year contract), and the Optimus S on Sprint for $49.99 (with contract). It’s heading to Verizon soon as the “Vortex”. The phone certainly isn’t a powerhouse — it has a smaller screen and slower CPU than typical Android smartphones. But it’s running the recent Android 2.2 release, which many Android owners are still waiting for, and reviewers have generally been very kind to the phone.

Not that it needed much confirmation, but LG’s success with the Optimus is a clear sign of how Android will eventually become the dominant mobile platform. Since it’s free, manufacturers can easily implement on both high and low-end phones, which means that it will definitely pose a threat to Nokia’s dominance among cheap “dumbphones.”

While LG is seeing success with the Optimus One, it also hasn’t given up on the high-end Android market, where it has yet to make a major impact. The company is apparently working on a super powerful Android phone that will be the first to pack in a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and it can also record 1080p high-definition video, Engadget reports.

The phone, which is being called the “Star” internally, doesn’t look like much design-wise. But it’s clearly worth paying attention to, if only because LG managed to deliver high-end specs like this in a phone before the likes of HTC or Motorola.