With Google’s official rollout of Android version 7.0 Nougat still in its early days, its predecessor continues to make steady progress rolling out to Android devices. As we look at the table, we can see that Lollipop (5.0 and 5.1 combined) once again tops the list with a combined market share of 35 percent. KitKat sees a decrease by 1.5 percent, Jelly Bean by 1.1 percent, and Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread by 0.2 percent.
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Although Marshmallow is making some progress in eating into Lollipop and KitKat, there are still devices that run the elderly versions of Android. As far as performance levels are concerned, the more stable Android Marshmallow still leads the way and as it appears, this lead goes beyond to include the numbers part or rather the market share. Apparently, any versions with less than 0.1% distribution are not shown, which leads us to believe that Android Nougat’s market share is insignificant for now. Gingerbread, one of the soon-to-be ancient Android versions has also gone down by two percent standing now at 1.4 percent from its previous 1.6 percent.
Google has released its monthly Android distribution statistics for September 2016. To note, the figures are gathered from devices visiting the Google Play app, which only supports Android 2.2 and above. It is noteworthy that Android 2.2 Froyo is still in the numbers, Google should completely axe it considering it’s been more than five years since the last version of Froyo was out. AOSP devices are estimated to account for 20% of global Android shipments and may number up to 450 million smartphones and 200 million tablets, according to a recent estimate.
Although Marshmallow is taking its time to rollout, the slow pace is unlikely to pick up as Nougat finds its feet and becomes pre-installed on new devices.
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The newest version of Google’s widely used operating system (OS), Android 7.0 Nougat, made its finishing touches last month and has finally been introduced to selected mobile devices.
