The latest Android numbers are in and there’s some good news: Android Jelly Bean is now running on almost half of all Android devices. The three iterations of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3) have raked in a collective total of 48.6% of all the devices that accessed the Google Play Store as of yesterday (October 2nd).
This is quite encouraging seeing as it is that now more Android device users are using the most recent versions of the mobile operating system. Android has previously been called out for fragmentation but the latest data is a sign that indeed things are changing for the better.
Of interest in that data is the appearance of Android 4.3. This is the first time we are seeing Android 4.3 make an appearance. Android 4.3 is still available on very few devices with the Nexus devices and Google Play Edition devices being the only ones that had it prior to October 1st. HTC is currently rolling out Android 4.3 worldwide to users of its HTC One flagship and Samsung should be giving the same treatment to its 2012 and 2013 flagship devices in the next two months. This means we should expect Android 4.3 numbers to receive a major boost going forward since the devices receiving the update in the next 60 days are immensely popular and have between them tens of millions of users.
Dropping out slowly is Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which now accounts for 28.5% of all Android devices. Froyo is on the way out at 2.2%. However when the two combine you have 30% of the Android user base still stuck on Android 2.x which is a figure to worry about. These are mostly devices that have been neglected by their manufacturers and carriers due to hardware limitations and will likely never ever get an upgrade to later versions of Android like Ice Cream Sandwich. In all, Android 4 accounts for about 70% of the overall Android user base with Android 2 taking the rest. With Android 4.4 KitKat coming soon, we’ll be staying on Android 4 for a while and it is possible to get to 90+% before Android 5 eventually rolls out.
| Android Version | Codename/Dessert Name | Distribution |
| 2.2 | Froyo | 2.2% |
| 2.3 | Gingerbread | 28.5% |
| 3.x | Honeycomb | 0.1% |
| 4.0 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 20.6% |
| 4.1 | Jelly Bean | 36.5% |
| 4.2 | “ | 10.6% |
| 4.3 | “ | 1.5% |
Not trolling (I’m a devoted phandroid!) but iOS 7 already runs on 65% of iOS devices and has been out for just slightly over two weeks (16 days actually). Jelly Bean has been around for a year and a half (18 months!) and is just hitting the 50% mark. Speaks volumes. I know the circumstances are different but it is what it is at face value, sorry.
