Newsletter
Here’s a fascinating find by DroidLife. While we’re all wondering why Google is teasing us on when they’ll release Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread) update, seems that the next version suddenly hit the web just as the Gingerbread’s Coming Any Day rumors started revving up.
The above graph was created by DroidLife using their site Google Analytics stats. Among other measurements, Google Analytics can show what kind of operating systems are surfing your site, so they looked at usage of the unreleased Android versions. And take a look at Android 3.0.1 usage, running along at nowhere and then suddenly increasing the day the Gingerbread Statue was sited at the Googleplex, October 22nd. (In case you didn’t know, Google has erected statues at their headquarters commemorating every dessert code name for Android OS releases, starting with version 1.5, Cupcake).
DroidLife also notes that they reported that same day that a Google employee casually referred to Gingerbread as Android 2.3 on a Google software issues database. Until then, the Android blogs avoided using a release number for Gingerbread OS, as Google hadn’t specified one yet.
The second high Honeycomb usage point in the graph, on October 26th, was the day the Nexus One successor with Gingerbread story hit. And then Honeycomb hits to their site tapered off, no doubt when the testing department was reminded that Google’s own tools could track them.
Source and Graph: DroidLife