As is customary for Android, they release a monthly pie-chart in which they show the progress of each new version of the Operating System, as well as indicate how all the rest are doing. Most people nowadays are mainly interested to see the progress of this latest version of Android – v4.4 KitKat, and frankly it’s rather impressive to see, considering it’s only been out for as long as it has.
Surprisingly enough, this version is doing quite well, despite the young age. Also, if you’d like to comment upon this and say that, perhaps, it’s too little, keep in mind that even Jelly Bean, with as much as it has right now, achieved all those stats in a couple of years. Also, they experienced growth booms at points of their lives and grew exponentially at those points of their lives.
Android OS v4.4 KitKat is starting with a 1.1% share of all installs, which frankly is a really good number for an OS that’s barely 1 month and something old. Also, as many were expecting, Android OS v4.1-through-3 is also experiencing a continuing growth, with more and more older devices making an upgrade for Jelly Bean.
On the other hand, Android 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich are continually experiencing a slow decline. Out of all of them, Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich were the ones to lose the most: 2.2% and 1.2% respectively. Surprisingly enough, Android OS v3.2 Honeycomb is still around. This tablet-restricted OS is stagnating on the same 0.1% of shares that it had a month ago as well.
It’s neat to see, at times, the comings and goings of Android OS versions. It’s interesting to see how the market moves and sways. Sadly however, I think soon some of them will most probably drop out from this list. If the older ones are replaced by 4.4 KitKat, however, the loss won’t necessarily be all that drastic. This version IS, after all, oriented towards optimizing the weaker devices.
