It’s that time again, time to check the distribution of Android versions on hardware throughout the eco-system. Google has released the figures for devices accessing Google Play in the 7 days leading up to the third of March and the versions look like this :
| Android Version | January | February |
| Android 2.2 (Froyo) | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| Android 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) | 20.0% | 19% |
| Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Android 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) | 16.1% | 15.2% |
| Android 4.1.x (JellyBean) | 35.5% | 35.3% |
| Android 4.2.x (JellyBean) | 16.3% | 17.1% |
| Android 4.3 (JellyBean) | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Android 4.4 (KitKat) | 1.8% | 2.5% |
While KitKat usage continues to climb albeit quite slowly Jelly Bean (Android 4.2 and 4.3) also continues to grow in popularity, while the decline of Froyo, which is still hanging on to relevancy by a thread continues to lose ground at an almost glacial pace. Ice Cream Sandwich usage is dropping quite steadily, although outstripped by the once former king of the platform : Gingerbread which lost 1% of its install base during February.
The numbers still prove that Android 4.x and above is still the best level for developers to aim their Apps at and if you’re interested in screen size distribution, the Developer dashboard has also been updated with those stats as well :
I honestly think google made 4.1 to 4.2 as jelly bean just to make look this chart great.
Shows the power of the Galaxy S4. I think those numbers are all about the S4 getting firmware updates.
wonder why many new cheap devices are getting released with jellybean in MWC 🙁
Be thankful they are not being announced as to be released with Gingerbread.
Google REALLY needs to get off its butt and be pro-active in making manufacturers only release devices with the latest version of Android.
How to do that is simple.
No latest android on the new release means no GAPPS on the device, and an across the board perma-ban on that device from ever being allowed to be validly used on Google services even if GAPPS is force installed on the device.
Well they’ve already made the steps to do this.
Whilst I am not using one there are many useful ways to reuse older phones i.e. alarm clocks, media payers or games. Or just a phone. I think Gingerbread will die a very slow death. No compelling reason for many to upgrade