Jelly Bean now runs on 45 percent of Android devices

Even as Google is basking in all the attention thanks to the new Android iteration being named KitKat, it is serious business as far as Android distribution for the last month is concerned. No surprises here, Jelly Bean is continuing its march forward, being the most used mobile platform version of Android currently.

According to the latest update to Google’s Android Developer Dashboard , the first two versions of Jelly Bean now run on a total of 45.1 percent Android devices, up from 40.5 percent last month. Android version 4.1 Jelly Bean is still the most widely used version with 36.6 percent devices still running the earliest Jelly Bean. The data does not include the newest Android version 4.3 Jelly Bean, released in late July, in it.

Say goodbye to Android versions older than 2.2 Froyo

Android version 4.0 is still taking a beating and with barely any manufacturer shipping phones with Ice Cream Sandwich now, the shares are down from 22.5 percent last month to 21.7 percent this month. Gingerbread, on the other hand, is still taking its own sweet time to fade out of the Android pie. The decline is slow, from 33.1 percent in August, to 30.7 in September. There is no major change as far as Froyo and Honeycomb versions of Android go, with only Android version 2.2 Froyo declining by 0.1 percent to 2.4. Honeycomb remains stagnant, running on 0.1 percent devices.

The most important development as far as this month’s data goes is that Android versions older than 2.2 Froyo, namely 1.6 Donut and 2.1 Éclair, will not be mentioned in data from now on. This is because the Android versions data is gathered from the new Google Play Store app that supports only versions 2.2 Froyo and above. In August, devices running Android versions older than 2.2 accounted for about 1 percent of devices that had checked in to Google servers, but had not actually visited the Play Store.

Earlier this week Google put an end to speculations of a version rumoured to be 5.0 Key Lime Pie and announced Android version 4.4. This new version is named KitKat after the Nestle bar of chocolate sold around the world. Hopefully, Jelly Bean will have the time to perch itself over the 50 percent mark by the time KitKat gets a release. It was also announced by Android chief Sundar Pichai that Android activations had crossed the 1 billion mark , a huge feat when it comes to operating systems.