Google’s Android service has been rising in amount and significance since its first public launch in 2008.
Since then we’ve seen it develop from the underdog competitior to the most popular mobile OS around, powering over one billion models and coping with operations ranging from video video games consoles to set-top packing containers, and smart TVs to cell models.
All knowledgeable, Android may be Google’s biggest technological contribution alongside its eponymous search engine, on-line map, and a platform to go looking out amusing films with.
Nonetheless, it isn’t good, and from a developer viewpoint it’s too fragmented. It’s one objective why iOS tends to get apps first, or why some under no circumstances attain Android the least bit.
Nonetheless merely how fragmented are points? And which mannequin of Android is everybody actually using?
To answer these questions we’ve put collectively an infographic (click on on to see a far greater mannequin) breaking down the variations of Android used most, and offering some concepts on the matter too.
As you may even see from our infographic, every Honeycomb and Lollipop don’t make the reduce, with system owners sticking with KitKat and Gingerbread – or upgrading away into Ice Cream Sandwich.
It moreover reveals that, whereas most prospects are engaged on KitKat, additional models are working a variant of Jelly Bean instead – with the overwhelming majority of them sticking to 4.2 instead of 4.3 or 4.1.
Whereas this will likely often seem significantly shocking on the ground, there are seemingly low cost explanations for a lot of elements.
Many will paint this as a failiure for Lollipop, espeically because of its buggy nature. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that Lollipop solely formally launched in the middle of November, and even then it solely obtained right here to some Nexus models.
By the tip of Google’s survey, which closed on the fifth January, most totally different producers hadn’t started rolling out the update to their devices. Samsung had solely launched an substitute for the Galaxy S5 in South Korea, and even now prospects are prepared for his or her space to recieve the substitute, and older models nonetheless have no concrete rollout date.
Conversely, KitKat has such an obscene amount of consumers because of it launched on the correct time in October, arriving on many models shortly after after which was the default OS for all new Android phone releases in 2014. Telephones launched within the course of the tail end of 2014 all obtained right here with KitKat put in on them, able to recieve an substitute to Android Lollipop when accessible.
As for why there are so many models nonetheless working older variations of Android, we’re capable of possibly flip our consideration to creating worldwide areas who’ve an arrange base of additional elementary attribute telephones working Android. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to see that whereas Gingerbread has a giant market share, most prospects who upgraded to Honeycomb have seemingly moved on to Ice Cream Sandwich too – leaving Honeycomb put in on decrease than 1 million models.
Let’s hope Google makes our infographic-making efforts null and void by releasing some updated information as quickly as Lollipop has rolled out to the rest of the world.
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