Sunday, 31 August 2014
Released by Google in October 2013, Android KitKat is slowly but surely embracing more and more devices, as manufacturers are striving to provide updates to keep users happy. According to Google data gathered between August 5 and August 12, KitKat now runs on 20.9% of all Android devices. KitKat was at 17.9% in July, and 13.6% in June, so its steady growth is obvious.
While we now have fewer devices running Jelly Bean when compared to last month, this version of Android (including 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3) is still the most widely used, being found on 54.2% of devices. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich currently powers 10.6% of Android devices, while 13.6% are stuck running 2.3 Gingerbread. Last on the list, still giving life to 0.7% of devices, is the very old Android 2.2 Froyo. Other Android versions, like Honeycomb or Éclair, are not listed because they account for less than 0.1%.
It will be interesting to see how things stand after Google launches the brand new Android L (currently available as a Developer preview for select Nexus devices). Let's hope the upgrade process won't be a painfully long one - though we're afraid that this is exactly what will happen in the case of some manufacturers.
This month, we’ve continued the positive
trend in KitKat adoption, but just as was the case last time around,
the rate of adoption is slowing as more and more flagship and former
flagships receive KitKat. This month, Android 4.4.x KitKat saw a
16.8% relative growth, which resulted in a total of 20.9% of active
installs. Surprisingly, Android 2.x is actually up one tenth of one
percent to 14.3%, and this is due to Gingerbread going from 13.5% to
13.6%. We shouldn’t be too concerned with the increase per se, as this
is likely a stats collection artifact, but the lack of a decrease could
signal that the platform’s Gingerbread problem will remain for quite
some time.
Another way of looking at the user
adoption data is that KitKat is on the rise, but the pace of this
formerly meteoric rise has now tempered off for two months, as more and
more devices that will get eventually KitKat have already gotten it. 2.x
is still holding strong, and perhaps that number will stay this way
until those users who are still clinging to their archaic devices are
forced to upgrade due to malfunction or growing minimum app
requirements. While the growth trends in this month’s adoption stats
aren’t quite as rosy as we’ve seen in previous updates, this is still
good news given KitKat’s continual rise.
