 "Gingerbread still rules Android as Jelly Bean adoption grows slowly")
The number of Android devices running Jelly Bean is growing steadily, while Ice Cream Sandwich seems to have peaked, as its overall share fell slightly since last month, according to Google’s monthly update of the Android Platform Versions page.
The latest Android versions, 4.1 and 4.2, have seen a strong growth of nearly 3.4 percent since January, from 10.2 to 13.6 in February. Version 4.1 of Jelly Bean alone saw a jump of a whopping 3.2 percent since last month, when its share was only 9 percent. Jelly Bean 4.2 too has seen a small-but-sure growth of 0.2 percent from 1.2 to 1.4, showing promise for the platform before the next version of Android comes in.
However, Gingerbread still seems to be lording over a huge chunk of the devices running the OS, with a whopping 45.6 percent of devices still running version 2.3 of the OS. Note that Gingerbread is quite old at this point of time and such a large number of devices running an outdated version of the OS means that cyber-criminals have a lot of devices with older software to exploit.
Gingerbread Pie all the way
Ice Cream Sandwich has borne the brunt of improper phasing, with the growth of version 4.0 of Android being stunted at 29 percent. Effectively, dropping numbers suggest that ICS might never hit the 30 percent mark. Sadly enough, Google reveals that 8 percent of Android devices are running Froyo.
However, with the way Jelly Bean adoption has taken off, it won’t be long before it takes the second place from ICS. For the first time now, we’ve seen ICS actually shed a few points, pointing to the fact that maybe it has peaked. Whether or not this is correct, we’ll know within a few months’ time.
Last month saw some really important changes in the Android market share. While Jellybean crossed the 10 percent share of the droid pie, Gingerbread fell below the 50 percent mark, and Froyo quietly slipped below the 10 percent mark.
The newest version of Android is witnessing rapid growth thanks to newer phones like Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X and the Nexus tablets. High-end phones being given as gifts during Christmas and the holiday season too has been touted as a major reason for the sudden growth in the number of devices running Jelly Bean. Besides new devices, Jelly Bean being rolled out to devices running ICS is the norm with most handset manufacturers today.
An interesting scene has been set for the launch of Android version 5.0, rumoured to be called Key Lime Pie, which is rumoured to hit the market in spring 2013. The launch of the newest Android version is bound to cause an upheaval in the platform landscape yet again.
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