The Android team updated their OS distribution numbers for the beginning of May this afternoon, showing what appears to be a slight jump for Jelly Bean at 28.4%, which is up from the 25% it topped off at in the beginning of April. We’re seeing a decline in Ice Cream Sandwich’s piece of the pie, which is likely due to devices running Android 4.0+ jumping to Android 4.1+ over the last month. We have seen a number of Jelly Bean updates, after all.

Gingerbread dropped to 38.5%, Honeycomb is barely alive at 0.1%, Froyo dipped to 3.6%, and the rest of the numbers didn’t move for Eclair and Donut.

You can see April’s numbers here, if you’d like to compare. Keep in mind that this numbers are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store

Via:  Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for May – Jelly Bean Jumps Slightly to 28.4% of Devices is a post from: Droid Life

The Android distribution numbers were updated this afternoon for the month of April. The numbers indicate a pretty dramatic increase for Jelly Bean month over month and now show it as being on 25% of all Android devices (4.1.x and 4.2.x combined). Last month, Android 4.1+ share stood at just 16.5%, so this is quite the jump, which we’ll get to in a moment. The rest of the numbers are as follows:  Ice Cream Sandwich (29.3%), Honeycomb (0.2%), Gingerbread (39.8%) Froyo (4.0%), Eclair (1.7%), and Donut (0.1%).

For those keeping track, that puts Android 4.0+ at 54.3%, with Gingerbread still leading the individual category at 39.8%. 

The Android Developers team announced through Google+ and on the distribution dashboard that the giant leap forward for Jelly Bean is likely do to an update in the way they calculate numbers. Rather than pulling numbers based upon devices that have checked into Google servers, they are using numbers based upon users who visit the Google Play store.

The new device dashboards are based on the devices of users who visit the Google Play Store (rather than devices that have checked-in to Google servers). As a result, the dashboards more accurately reflect the users most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem—and thus most likely to download and use your apps.

Since these numbers are supposed to be used by developers, not just as stories for silly websites like ours, this move makes a lot of sense. Google is doing whatever it can to help developers target audiences for their apps, and that’s a good thing.

And that’s…that.

Via:  Android Developers | +Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for April – Jelly Bean Now on 25% of All Devices is a post from: Droid Life

Hey, our least favorite time of the month – Android distribution numbers update! Over a 14-day period that ended on March 4, the Android team has come to the conclusion that 16.5% of Android users are now running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1+). The rest of the numbers look like this – Ice Cream Sandwich (28.6%), Honeycomb (1.2%), Gingerbread (44.2%), Froyo (7.6%), Eclair (1.9%), and Donut (0.2%). 

Compared to last month, that’s a 2.9% increase for the newest version of Android. We’re also finally starting to see Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich shares take a bit of a hit after what seems like years. That means a couple of things – people are dropping Gingerbread devices and upgrading to new ones with newer versions of Android and that manufacturers are finally starting to update their phones.

And cue the Apple blogs with ridiculous titles about fragmentation.

Update:  Google has tweaked a couple of the numbers. Froyo now sits at 7.5%, with Gingerbread 10 at 43.9%.

Via:  Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for March, Jelly Bean Slowly Rises as the Rest Fall (Updated) is a post from: Droid Life

Within the hour, Google released new Android distribution numbers for the month of February. The numbers, as usual, aren’t anything to have your IRC troll group run to reddit with, but they do offer up a look at whether or not any Android OEMs have updated phones over the last month. As expected, there have been, so the numbers are changing in the slightest of ways.

Jelly Bean is up to 13.6% (from 10.2%), Ice Cream Sandwich actually dropped to 29.0% (from 29.1%), Honeycomb dropped to 1.3% (from 1.5%), and Gingerbread still leads all but is down to 45.6% (from 46.6%).

Neat, right? If you say so.

Via:  Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for February – Jelly Bean Slithers Along, the Rest Drop is a post from: Droid Life

10%! Ten percent! Diez por ciento! (I think that’s the Spanish version) Jelly Bean, in the newest Android distribution numbers has hit the double digit mark. I don’t know why I’m acting like I’m excited about that fact, but it certainly seems like some sort of a milestone, doesn’t it? Also of note, we have Gingerbread dropping below the 50% mark for the first time in well over a year and Ice Cream Sandwich creeping up towards the 30% mark.

That puts almost 40% of Android users on at least the top two versions of Android. Not bad? Not that good either. An ongoing battle.

Via:  Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Update for January – Jelly Bean Tops 10%, Gingerbread Takes a Hit is a post from: Droid Life

Until Gingerbread falls below 50% on the Android distribution charts, I’m going to continue to use the same post title for these stories over and over again. When did we get Android 2.3? Two years ago? Yep, two years ago, and it’s still dominating the Android platform. While Ice Cream Sandwich has slowly climbed to 27.5% after a year, and Jelly Bean to 6.7% after 6 months, it’s still a mobile OS that will be prone to criticism over its fractured update system. We still love every ounce of it, but that’s the reality of the situation.

But anyway, here are the new numbers for December 2012!

Via:  Android Developers

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for December – Same Gingerbread Story, Just Another Month is a post from: Droid Life

It’s the first of the month which means Google has updated the Android distribution numbers from the previous month. As you would expect, Jelly Bean’s share has jumped slightly to 2.7%. Since there are so few phones running 4.1, the slight bump from 1.8% makes perfect sense.

The Ice Cream Sandwich share saw a solid increase to 25.8%, up from 23.7%. Gingerbread remains king with a majority 53.9%. The rest is spread between really old phones running ancient software.

And that’s that.

Via:  Android Developers

Google Updates Android Distribution Numbers for November, Jelly Bean Up to 2.7% is a post from: Droid Life

As expected, since it’s the first week of the month, the Android distribution numbers have been updated. Also as expected, they look very similar to last month’s numbers, which show Gingerbread (Android 2.3) continuing to dominate and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) slowly on the rise. Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) on the other hand, jumped a whopping 0.6%. This is life on Android, folks. 

If you want the most current version of Android, you buy a GSM Nexus phone. If you don’t want to leave Verizon for said GSM device, then you are forever going to be stuck in the 6-8 month long update cycle. Since Android OEMs do not control both hardware and software like Apple, it’s always going to be a struggle. Google creates the base of the software, OEMs tweak it to their liking, and then carriers sign off on it before letting it reach your device. It’s an impossible battle to win in a timely manner, until some miracle update process is discovered.

Via:  Android

Android Distribution Charts Updated – Same Gingerbread Story, Just Another Month is a post from: Droid Life

It’s the first week of the month, and that means that new Android distribution numbers are released. Hooray! Woohoo! <insert catchy Apple blog title about how many months it has been and ICS is only at 20%>.

In all semi-seriousness, we did see a jump of 5% for Ice Cream Sandwich from 15.8% to 20.8%, thanks to devices receiving updates across a number of carriers. Jelly Bean also jumped, though slightly to 1.2% (from 0.8%). Gingerbread, as you can imagine, started to decrease as phones made the jump from Android 2.3 to 4.0. And yeah, that’s pretty much that.

Via:  Android

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for September, Like Watching a Race Between Turtles is a post from: Droid Life

It’s the first week of the month, and what does that mean? Android OS distribution numbers are released for all of the “fragmentation” arguers to have a field day with! This month we get to see the debut of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) on the chart at 0.8%, something that I’m sure Apple will use in a big bold slide during their iPhone 5 announcement. Then again, their adoption rate is always flawed since they update their devices and hack out all of the newly announced features that apparently can’t run on older hardware, but I digress.

So what do we have here? Ice Cream Sandwich is up to 15.9%, a solid 5% jump in a month’s time. You can probably attribute the increase to devices like the DROID RAZR and XOOM receiving the update over the last month. Now that the Rezound, EVO 3D, and others are in the process of receiving it as well, that number will only jump even higher over the next few weeks. Numbers for Froyo and Gingerbread are all decreasing.

There you have it, the August 2012 Android OS distribution numbers. Which percentage are you included in?

Via:  Android

Android OS Distribution Numbers Updated – Jelly Bean Debuts, Ice Cream Sandwich Starts to Take Over is a post from: Droid Life

The Android team updated the distribution chart for July and Ice Cream Sandwich numbers look to be growing at a steady rate. Back on May 1, we had ICS on only a low 4.9% of devices, but those numbers have more than doubled, which I’m sure many DROID RAZR and MAXX owners are quite happy with. Gingerbread still leads the pack with an enormous 63.6%, followed next by our beloved Froyo at 17.3%.

No mention of Jelly Bean yet on these charts, but that makes sense seeing as how it technically isn’t available yet. We will start to see it grow very slowly by the end of the month once they release it to the AOSP. Reminds me that we are fortunate to have such an awesome community of developers who are already pumping out JB ROM’s for multiple devices.

Via:  Android

Android Distribution Charts Updated – 10.9% of Devices on ICS is a post from: Droid Life

Here we are on May 1 and the Android team has already updated their OS distribution chart. The most notable change is the jump for Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) from 2.9% in April to 4.9% in May. Staggering increase, I know. Can you contain yourself? Not much else to say, but always like to share the numbers.

Via:  Android

Cheers Gary!

Android Distribution Numbers Updated for May, Ice Cream Sandwich to 4.9% is a post from: Droid Life

I really despise this time of the month. Whenever the Android team updates their distribution chart, a barrage of posts from the tech world scream out our favorite word and argument all over again:  fragmentation. It never fails. It gets so old, but these industry analysts and pundits can’t help themselves. Do we believe that there is some form of fragmentation in Android? Obviously there is or we wouldn’t have a chart like we do above. Is it a death sentence or end of the world as many seem to make it out to be? Not for a second.

As you can see from the chart, only 2.9% of Android devices today, run Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest version of Android. While that’s frustrating to a point, we know that carriers and manufacturers are feverishly preparing updates for many of their handsets, all of which should be here shortly. This is simply the way Android is and arguably, the way it was meant to be. 

It’s a free and open platform. Google made it this way on purpose. They want manufacturers to take it, tweak it, customize it, and then sell it to consumers. They want different experiences to be created and for OEMs to innovate. If they didn’t, they would have already laid down the law and closed off everything or started selling the platform. Do we see OEMs really complaining all that much? Android helped revive most of their depressing sales goals over the last 2 years and helped some of them become global smartphone giants.

“But fragmentation is so bad!” Is it really? Android is everywhere. It has taken over the mobile world and is dominating in market share. How is it so bad? Sure, there are times when an app here or there doesn’t work but on the newest version of Android. And yes, we all wish we could have updates to the new version of Android the minute Google announces it. That’s just not the way this platform will probably ever work. I hate to say it, but get used to it. Android is doing fine the way it is. Is there room for improvement on the update front? Of course there is – Motorola, Samsung and HTC could all be faster. And by all means, they are getting faster. With Gingerbread last year, it took 6-7 months before OEM skinned updates started happening. With ICS, it has taken all of 3-4 months for some.

I’m just saying for the 1,000th time, that fragmentation as an issue is not anywhere near the level that some of these people would have you believe. Only tech geeks and bored journalists truly believe it to be a problem. Go ask your aunt with the Incredible 2 if she’s mad about not having ICS yet. Chances are, that you mentioning it is the first time she’s heard of it. Just give her a phone that works, at a reasonable price and that has a ton of apps on it – exactly the way Android is.

Android Distribution Charts Spark Ridiculous “Fragmentation” Arguments for the 1,000th Time is a post from: Droid Life

We Tweeted this last night, but here are the new Android distribution numbers for March 2012. Not much has changed other than a slight bump in Android 4.0.3 thanks to some new tablets receiving the update. Here are February’s numbers if you would like to compare. It’s going to continue to be all about Gingerbread until OEMs can get some updates out.

More info.

Android Distribution Charts Updated for March, Not Much has Changed as Expected is a post from: Droid Life

Back in January, Android 4.0 made up for all of 0.6% of the world Android market share. As of February 2, it has jumped up to a full 1% as a handful of tablets received updates from Honeycomb. Gingerbread as expected, remained king, growing another few percentage points thanks to updates on a number of phones.

Overall though, the pie looks almost identical to that of the previous month. While manufacturers work hard on updating their phones to ICS in the coming months, it likely won’t change much for a while.

Via:  Android Developers

February’s Android Distribution Chart is Out – Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich Shares Grow Slightly is a post from: Droid Life