It’s a new month and a new year, and even with CES dominating the news cycle Google has proven that life goes on releasing the Android Distribution numbers for January 2018.
The big news is that Android 8.1 has made it’s first appearance in the list with 0.2% of the user base. Last month it was not included, possibly due to that version registering less than 0.1%. The Android 8.0 release however remained the same at just 0.5% of the total install base.
For the rest of the Android eco-system, the lower versions of Android (Gingerbread/Ice Cream Sandwich) both remained static, while all versions of Jelly Bean, as well as Lollipop and Marshmallow all saw decline in usage, while Nougat saw increases in usage.
For the record, here’s how the number stacked up against last month:
| Android Version | December 2017 | January 2018 |
| Android 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Android 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| Android 4.1.x (JellyBean) | 2.0% | 1.9% |
| Android 4.2.x (JellyBean) | 3.0% | 2.9% |
| Android 4.3 (JellyBean) | 0.9% | 0.8% |
| Android 4.4 (KitKat) | 13.4% | 12.8% |
| Android 5.0 (Lollipop) | 6.1% | 5.7% |
| Android 5.1 (Lollipop) | 20.2% | 19.4% |
| Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) | 29.7% | 28.6% |
| Android 7.0 (Nougat) | 19.3% | 21.1% |
| Android 7.1 (Nougat) | 4.0% | 5.2% |
| Android 8.0 (Oreo) | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| Android 8.1 (Oreo) | – | 0.2% |
Oreo has been available since late August. 4 months later, it is barely 0.7%.
I know most manufacturers take their sweet time but still, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I would bet that iOS devices reach 0.7% within a hour of a major version release.
Google really need a way to reverse Treble into old phones, and then use it to roll out new OS much much faster.
And they need to tie in security updates into such a system – a vast swathe of phone will be open to the latest issues and will never see updates.