| Version | Codename | API | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6 | Donut | 4 | 0.1% |
| 2.1 | Eclair | 7 | 1.4% |
| 2.2 | Froyo | 8 | 3.1% |
| 2.3 | Gingerbread | 10 | 34.1% |
| 3.2 | Honeycomb | 13 | 0.1% |
| 4.0 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 15 | 23.3% |
| 4.1 | Jelly Bean | 16 | 32.3% |
| 4.2 | Jelly Bean | 17 | 5.6% |
For the first time ever, Android’s Jelly Bean OS has taken the top seat among Android devices with 38% of devices now running the latest firmware.
Fragmentation across multiple OS releases has always been a massive problem facing Android and its users, many of whom either receive updates incredibly late or not at all.
While it’s true that there are now more devices running on Android Jelly Bean than any other version; knocking Gingerbread off of its long-held perch; the name “Jelly Bean” is enjoyed by both Android 4.1 and Android 4.2.
A cynical view would see this as number-fudging by Google, which it certainly is to a degree. Despite this, the numbers are still encouraging for one very important reason: Ice Cream Sandwich was completely skipped over as top-dog.
No love for ICS means big love for Android users
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was originally released with some minor upgrades, a few aesthetic tweaks and that’s really about it. At the time it seemed hardly enough to warrant jumping from 2.3 right up to 4.0. There were two reasons that this number-jump have proven justified.
- Before ICS, Android tablets and phones ran on separate OSes, specifically Android 2.3 and 3.0/3.1. Android 4.0 merged them in to one OS across all device types.
- Google’s fight against fragmentation was the focus for its ICS announcement. ICS was a milestone, after which all future versions of Android would be much more closely based on their forerunners, making it easier for manufacturers to make their devices compatible for upgrades.
The second point is the reason we're excited. That Jelly Bean has overtaken Gingerbread before ICS even got close is thanks very much to ICS units seeing Android 4.1 updates. Even the Samsung Galaxy S II has been upgraded to 4.1 and that phone's over two years old.
The recently-released HTC One is already being updated from 4.1 to 4.2 in many regions, with the rest soon to follow. This would never have happened a couple of years ago; HTC One users would probably have been waiting another 6 months to forever to get their updates. This is the first time we can think of that a flagship device has been released and then updated to the newest Android OS while it’s still selling millions of units. It’s a good sign.
Android 2.3 is going to stick around for a while
Gingerbread does still boast the most units running, showing 34.1% of device support vs the 32.4% on Jelly Bean 4.1 and 5.6% on Jelly Bean 4.2.
The discrepancy between ICS and Gingerbread is due to that upgrade streamlining we mentioned before. GB devices just weren’t easy enough to upgrade to 4.0 for manufacturers and carriers to bother. As such, a huge number of Android handsets got left behind and will likely never be updated again.
We hope to see ICS numbers dwindling in the following months as more of the older handsets see 4.1 or even 4.2 updates, although the tide is sure to slow on that front, too.
Android hasn’t beaten fragmentation yet by any standards, but this data displays a clear victory for Google. At the very least, we know headway is being made.
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