Each month, Google posts up the Android Distribution numbers, and each month, we try to hold our laughter back. In December, Oreo, the latest and greatest version of Android, was on as many Android handsets as Ice Cream Sandwich. That equated to 0.5% of the total Android pie, which after a few months of being available, is pretty comical. There’s absolutely nothing Google can do about it right now, but still, it’s something we enjoy pointing out.
Regardless of what we think, Google has posted up January’s distribution numbers, so let’s go over them. Oreo now sits at 0.7% (up from 0.5%), Nougat grew to 26.3% (up from 23.3%), Marshmallow fell to 28.6% (down from 29.7%), Lollipop now sits at 25.1%, KitKat is at 12.8%, Jelly Bean is at 5.6%, and Ice Cream Sandwich + Gingerbread equals to the remaining 0.9%.
You can see last month’s numbers here.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5890ee57f353605f3b4cfd2b8fde538121f7898ced750323c9102a86196c226.jpg
I wanted to say that some of us are on lolipop, marshmallow or nougat by choice. I am on lolipop by choice. Any version above 4.2
should be fine. I think most of us like the latest and greatest. I don’t. I never did. I love the second, third-to latest, windows 8.1, android 5-6. I feel like android 5 is awesome and so is windows 8.1. I’ll upgrade to 6 in some time. Not to 7 though as it’s not supported. So yes, there are some people that want or need nougat/oreo. I personally loved jellybean, it feels like childhood. Now I love Lolipop/Kitkat/Marshmallow. I think that everyone goes with thier boat. I personally loved android. 4x-6x But I don’t like 7-8x yet. When google relases android P, I will be getting O or N. I love fragmentation. Keep it up! I still have a galaxy tab 2, but I may resort to get a custom rom on that. I always think that android is just a 2010’s/early 2020’s thing. I always think of android z and what will happen then, but that’s eons away. All apps I use work on lolipop and above. No reason to upgrade. Bixby is not big deal and the s8/s9. I stick with s5 until late 2018, then s7 until 2020, then s10 in2023. You get the deal. I like tech 2-7 years old and will probably always do. So, yes the galaxy s5 is awesome now. I personally think, if you can get what youwant . I think that’s my experience summed up honestly.
I’m still using my moto x 2013 on lollipop, Still no lag with over 200 apps installed and battery still lasts a long time
Kit Kat >
It’s sad to see how long it has been since a single flavor has broken the 40% mark. The chart looks like it was back in 2015? Ouch.
Google occasionally releases other stats about the versions out there … I wonder if they have data on the average age of the hardware connecting to the play store? I had been wondering if the bulk of the stragglers to upgrade are due to age of the hardware, or due to low and mid range hardware never seeing updates? Would also love to see this OS version data broken out by country, or even by market region or continent.
Well for a while, Google was only releasing a new version of Android every year, lately they seem to come out with a new major release at least twice per year. They’re coming out with new releases faster than the OEMs can keep up with (again)
Samsung is also largely to blame. The fact that NO Samsung devices are running even 8.0 is absolutely inexcusable.
I’ve got Nougat here on my S7. Just upgraded from a Note 4 just before Christmas. If my Note 4 wouldn’t have always rebooted on its own, I’d still be on Marshmello.
To me, this kinda shows the adoption rate of upgrading to a new phone. For the price of the phones, I was more thrilled to pay $150 for my S7, than have the latest and greatest.
Marshmallow is still my favorite version.
It’s better than lollipop but still had a lot of battery problems