It’s the time of the month again where Google releases the latest statistics for Android distribution. This time round, adoption for Android Nougat and Oreo have increased, with older software versions reduced respectively. Have a look at the pie chart released by Android above.
Android Oreo, which made its appearance on the chart last month, sees a 50 percent increase to still a mere 0.3 percent. The latest Android OS should see significant increase in adoption by the first half of 2018 as smartphone makers will be racing to roll out their versions of Android Oreo for their respective devices. The more current Android Nougat on the other hand, finally accounts for 20 percent of adoption on Android devices, having increased from 17.8 percent last month.
Android Marshmallow remains as the most widely operated Android version till today at 30.9 percent. It has however gone down from 32 percent last month. Android Lollipop too still takes up more than a quarter of the pie chart at 27.2 percent, with Kit Kat accounting for 13.8 percent. Android Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean altogether account for less than 10 percent of the whole pie. Gingerbread is surprisingly still active, with its last release dating back more than 6 years ago.
As usual, Android fragmentation will still be an issue for the foreseeable future. But with companies such as HMD Global (Nokia) promising new software support for entry level and mid range devices for at least the next two years, perhaps we could see a change in Android distribution.
