Google sure took its sweet time to announce its Android distribution stats in July, but it’s picked up its speed considerably for the August numbers.
Google today revealed its August 2016 Android platform distribution numbers, showing which versions of Android were used to access the Play Store during the seven-day period ending on August 1. Android 6.0 Marshmallow grew 1.9 percent from July to finish at 15.2 percent in August. Lollipop (Android 5.0 and 5.1) grew, too, gaining a whole 0.4 percent to finish at 35.5 percent.
The other versions of Android didn’t fare quite as well. KitKat (Android 4.4) dropped from 30.1 percent in July to 29.2 percent in August, while Jelly Bean (Android 4.1-4.3) fell from 17.8 percent to 16.7 percent. Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) slipped from 1.7 percent to 1.6 percent.
Rounding out this month’s stats is Gingerbread (Android 2.3) dropping from 1.9 percent in July to 1.7 percent in August. And then there’s Froyo, which has been holding on to a 0.1 percent share in recent months and continues to do so in August.
As expected, Android 6.0 continues to slowly gain marketshare as older devices are updated and new phones and tablets come to market with Marshmallow in tow. It’s interesting to see Lollipop grow, too, but that’s not likely to continue. And if Android 7.0 Nougat does launch this month as rumors suggest, we could see it debut in September’s report, though it’ll likely start out with a small slice of the pie since it’ll only be available to Nexus devices initially.