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Android Jelly Bean marketshare overtakes Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread still going strong

Android Jelly Bean marketshare overtakes Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread still going strong

By Anupam Saxena | Updated: 2 May 2013 17:59 IST

For the first time, Android Jelly Bean has overtaken Ice Cream Sandwich, which indicates that more new devices are now running a recent version of Google's mobile operating system.

Just like every month, Google Google has shared monthly distribution data for Android for the month of May according to which the latest version of the operating system, Android Jelly Bean, that comprises of versions 4.1 and 4.2 of the OS, is now present on 28.4 percent of all Android devices. It's just a marginal lead of 0.9 percent compared to the share of Android 4.0.x which commands a 27.5 percent share in the Android device ecosystem but it surely implies that Ice Cream Sandwich is on a decline. It's worth pointing out that Jelly Bean or Android 4.1 is a major improvement in terms of performance as it brings Project Butter, making the user experience much better than Android 4.0 ICS. Also, we believe a major number of ICS devices would be able to run Jelly Bean, as there's not much difference in hardware requirements.

The distribution share of Jelly Bean witnessed an increase of 3.4 percent compared to last month's share of the OS.

As we mentioned, Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich commands a 27.5 percent share in the Android device ecosystem, which is a decline of 1.8 percent compared to April's data.

It's worth pointing out that beginning last month the data charts are now based on the data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store to make it more accurate and reflect the percentage of users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem, as per Google. Prior to this, data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers.

Android 2.3.x Gingerbread's user base continues to shrink with the OS version recording a 38.5 percent share across all Android devices, a month on month decline of 1.3 percent.

The combined share of Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.1 Eclair is now reaching the 5.4 percent mark, down from 5.7 percent last month.

This must come as good news for Google which is struggling to overcome fragmentation and indicates that users are abandoning devices that run old iterations of the OS and choosing new one over them. This also helps developers as they need to optimise their apps for limited OS versions, taking less time and resources.

While the percentage of Jelly Bean devices is increasing as new phones ship with the OS and some old devices get updated, a large number are still on Android 4.1 and not on Android 4.2, the latest iteration of the OS, which indicates that there's fragmentation within one version of the OS. While Google is now expected to release another version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.3 at this year's Google's I/O event, and not Android 5.0 or Key Lime Pie, which was earlier suggested, it remains to be soon how soon handset makers update their Android 4.1 devices to 4.2 and subsequently, to Android 4.3.

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