Every month Google publish data about the current user base and what versions of Android is being used. It usually makes for interesting and worrying reading. The most recent figures have turned something interesting up.
|
Version |
Codename |
API |
Distribution |
| 1.6 | Donut | 4 | 0.2% |
| 2.1 | Eclair | 7 | 1.9% |
| 2.2 | Froyo | 8 | 7.6% |
| 2.3 – 2.3.2 | Gingerbread | 9 | 0.2% |
| 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 | 10 | 44% | |
| 3.1 | Honeycomb | 12 | 0.3% |
| 3.2 | 13 | 0.9% | |
| 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 15 | 28.6% |
| 4.1 | Jelly Bean | 16 | 14.9% |
| 4.2 | 17 | 1.6% |
These figures are from a two week period of study of Play Store users ending on the 14th of March. They have even made a nice pie chart to show them as well.
The figures show that Gingerbread is running on 44.2% of devices. They also show Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean is now running on 45.1% of devices. So now finally the rule of Gingerbread is sort of over. Although it is a long way off one single Android version having more users.
It is absurd though, that the networks and Google have screwed up the whole update process to such an extent that 44.2% of Android users are running software from late 2010.
The only real option for getting decent updates is to get a Nexus device. Which in itself is a challenge. Google need to either push the Nexus devices more or sort the networks out.
If you want some more statistics on this topic head over to the Android Developers page here.
Yes, but a lot of those old devices haven’t a prayer of running ICS or above, due to the spec race that then took off. Android is now so bloaty, especially after skins are added, that the older devices – especially those with 512 RAM – that older devices can’t cope.
If Android had been kept leaner as it developed, more upgrades might have been possible.
There is still more pre 4.0 devices than there is post 4.0 devices 15 months after ICS was released. The figures quoted add up to 100.2% as well.
Yeah it is typical of Google to mess up the figures. Also disastrous that so many people are on out dated devices.