New month, new Android distribution stats!
Google just updated the Android distribution numbers on its Android Developers website. These stats are gathered by Google monitoring the Android devices that access the Google Play Store app during the 7-day period ending on October 5.
Android Lollipop finished the period with 23.5 percent, up from 21 percent in September. Breaking Lollipop down, Android 5.0 was on 15.6 percent of devices while Android 5.1 was on 7.9 percent.
Android 4.4 KitKat was on 38.9 percent of devices this time around, which is slightly less than the 39.2 percent share it claimed in September. Meanwhile, Android Jelly Bean finished at 30.2 percent — Android 4.3 at 4.3 percent, Android 4.2 at 14.5 percent, and Android 4.1 at 11.4 percent — which is also a drop from September. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich fell from 3.7 percent in September to 3.4 percent in October.
Rounding out these numbers is Android 2.3 Gingerbread at 3.8 percent, down from 4.1 percent in September, and Android 2.2 Froyo holding steady at 0.2 percent.
While Lollipop is still behind KitKat and Jelly Bean, it’s nice to see Lollipop continuing to gain ground on those older versions of Android. Exactly how much more than number will grow remains to be seen, though, with Marshmallow now rolling out to Nexus phones and many manufacturers planning Android 6.0 updates. Surely there will still be new phones released with Lollipop in the coming months, but we’ll likely start to see new Marshmallow phones in the next couple of months, too.
