03
Jan
2013-01-03_17h21_40

Gingerbread Finally On Less Than Half Of All Android Handsets At 47.4%, ICS Shoots Up To 29.1%, JB On 10%

Posted by in Google, News

The long, hard road towards the future of Android slogs on. While Gingerbread still remains the largest major version of the platform, its dominance is decreasing steadily. As of January 3rd, Gingerbread only represented 47.4% (down from 50.6% in December)of all Android devices. The second runner-up was Ice Cream Sandwich with 29.1% (up from 27.5% in December). The two versions of Jelly Bean totaled up to 10.2%, though if you subdivide by the Summer and Winter releases, they get much farther apart: 4.1 accounts for 9%, while 4.2 is on a measly 1.2% of devices.

2013-01-03_17h18_12

The decrease in Gingerbread and increase in Ice Cream Sandwich is good enough news, especially since 4.0 saw the advent of the much more modern UI that has remained fairly consistent throughout subsequent platform releases.

01
Aug
android-logo-font

Android Platform Distribution Updated: ICS Up To Almost 16%, Jelly Bean 0.8%

Posted by in Android OS, News

Google has again updated the current platform version numbers, and they show a reasonably good uptick in the usage of Android 4.0 variants. However, Google's new baby, Jelly Bean, is still bumping along at less than 1% even with all those Nexus 7 tablets.

chart

Last time Android 4.0 was almost 11%, so those new devices and updates are definitely helping. Gingerbread was, and still is the majority of devices, but it's dropped a few points from roughly 64% to a touch over 60% now. As a reminder, Gingerbread is 20 months old now, and there's really no reason for it to still be so prevalent when ICS has had over half a year to build.

27
Apr
150

The Big Android Chart™: A Definitive History of Android Version Adoption

Posted by in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News
Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

Pop quiz: How long does it take for a new version of Android to be widely adopted? A new version of Android comes out, AOSP updates, OEMs adapt it to a myriad of devices, and carriers test the updates. That process. How long does it take?

It's a tough question to answer, mostly because Google doesn't provide data like that. The official site shows a 6 month version history, and that's it. Anyone looking for a decent amount of data is out of luck. There’s no way to view the long journey older Android versions have taken, and no way to see the bigger picture of how the update process eventually works out.

07
Jul
Distribution chart

Google Updates Android Platform Distribution Chart Again - Eclair On The Decline, Gingerbread Continuing To Make Headway

Posted by in Android OS, News

As is its wont at this time of the month, Google has updated its Android platform distribution chart, and while there aren't any real shockers to be found, it's still nice to see which versions of Android are most popular.

Distribution table Distribution chart

Let's start from the top of the table: as should be expected, the number of devices running Android 1.5 (Cupcake) and 1.6 (Donut) is steadily dropping, as more and more users upgrade their devices or receive software updates. 2.1 (Éclair) is continuing to loose headway, with 17.5% of Android users running it.

Moving on to more modern versions of the OS, Froyo (Android 2.2) is still the king of the hill where stats are concerned, claiming 59.4% of users.