Newsletter
Each month, Google releases the figures for the latest levels of the Android operating system distribution. This is, the level of distribution that each version of the operating system currently occupies. With each new month that passes, more devices are either released on the latest version of Android or get bumped up to the latest version via an OTA update. Up until recently, this bumping was for Android 5.x (Lollipop) and last month’s figures showed Lollipop climbing up to a 23.5-percent distribution level. However, at the end of September, Google did announce the release of Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). In spite of its release though, Marshmallow was not widely enough available in time to make any impact on the monthly distribution. Well, the latest figures are now coming in from the Android Developers team and represent data collected over a seven-day period which ended on November 2nd. And this time, Marshmallow is making its first impact on the distribution, albeit, a very small one.
In terms of the numbers and as already mentioned, Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) has made its first appearance on the distribution list and comes in at the decimal-based 0.3-percent level. This small impact is to be expected as Marshmallow s largely only available for Nexus devices. Moving on to Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and the latest figures now show a total distribution for Lollipop of 25.6-percent. This is the total for both Android 5.0 (which came in at 15.5-percent) combined with Android 5.1 (which came in at 10.1-percent). This also highlights a small increase of 3.1-percent when compared to last month’s figure which was 23.5-percent.
Moving further on and Android 4.4 (KitKat) now secures 37.8-percent of the distribution, which as to be expected represents a small decrease of 1.1-percent (down from 38.9-percent last month). Android 4.1-4.3 (Jelly Bean) still shows a relatively strong presence with the latest figures highlighting a distribution level of 29-percent, which represents a decrease of 1.2-percent (down from 30.2-percent last month). Android 4.0.3-4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) now stands at 3.3-percent, which represents a minuscule drop of 0.1-percent (down from last month’s 3.4-percent). While Android 2.3.3-2.3.7 (Gingerbread) remains at 3.8-percent, which shows no change from last month. Likewise, Android 2.2 (Froyo) comes in at the 0.2-percent level, which again, highlights no change from last month’s figures.
