Android Developers website has unveiled the latest numbers in terms of version distribution for the Android platform for the month of June. This has been a norm for some time now, and it mostly serves its purpose well, which is to remind us of the android fragmentation mess.
My colleague, one Saruni Maina was mad about people who resurrected and sneaked in SIM cards to their 2011 devices. Thankfully, those people did not come out in large number to remind us about how cool Gingerbread was during those dark days (it did bring NFC integration, though), but they managed to bump up the numbers from 0.9% in April to 1% in May. On the bright side of things, Gingerbread has slipped by 0.2% to 0.8% and that’s where it probably belongs.
Other versions that have seen a significant drop when compared to May statistics include Jellybean 4.1 (3.2% to 3.1%) and Jellybean 4.2 (4.6% to 4.4%), Kitkat 4.4 (18.8% to 18.1%) as well as Lollipop 5.0 (8.7% to 8.2%) and Lollipop 5.1 (23.3% to 22.6%).
Android Marshmallow 6.0 retained its position at 31.2%, which makes it the most popular android version. Also, Android Jellybean 4.3 remained at 1.3%.
Nougat 7.0 is up to 8.9% from 6.6%, and so is 7.1 that has slightly moved from 0.5% to 0.6%. This may be attributed to the sale of new devices that ship with the latest software goodies from Google, not to mention older devices that are being blessed with updates.
| Android Version | Codename | API | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3.3-2.3.7 | Gingerbread | 10 | 0.8% |
| 4.0.3-4.0.4 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 15 | 0.8% |
| 4.1.x | Jelly Bean | 16 | 3.1% |
| 4.2.x | " | 17 | 4.4% |
| 4.3 | " | 18 | 1.3% |
| 4.4 | KitKat | 19 | 18.1% |
| 5.0 | Lollipop | 21 | 8.2% |
| 5.1 | " | 22 | 22.6% |
| 6.0 | Marshmallow | 23 | 31.2% |
| 7.0 | Nougat | 24 | 8.9% |
| 7.1 | " | 25 | 0.6% |
Fragmentation has always been a problem for an extended period and it will probably take a long time to tackle. However, Google has been trying to address the issue by employing several approaches with mixed levels of success. A few years ago, Google tried to pitch the idea of Google Play Editions for popular devices for timely software updates. The program is now dead. Android One was then launched to give Google control over the hardware issues. Its projections are mildly disappointing and its future is shaky.
*The data above is from Google. It was collected during a seven-day period ending on June 5, 2017. Any versions with less than 0.1 percent distribution are not shown.
