Newsletter
It’s that time of the month again boys and girls, the time when Google releases those all-important stats on everything Android. Every month Google takes a week-long survey of the Google Play Store and determines things like what version of Android users are running, what screen size and resolution, and even things like what OpenGL version these devices support. The biggest thing everyone seems to be interested in every month is which version of Android reigns supreme, and it’s always interesting to watch the numbers change as updates roll out and users upgrade to newer devices. It wasn’t until May of this year that the nearly 3 year old Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS was finally overtaken by newer versions, with all versions above 4.0 then finally powering the majority of Android devices out there. Now we move on to the month of September, where more strides have been made than nearly any other month so far. Jelly Bean as a whole, ranging from Android 4.1-4.3, now takes up a total of 48.6%; nearly half of all Android devices out there! This time period reflects data collected from Wednesday September 25th to Wednesday October 2nd, 2013.
This is fantastic news not only for developers, who can now confidently work on the Android 4.0+ development language, but also for users, as Android 4.0 and higher is a significantly better user experience than that found in Android 2.3 Gingerbread and older. This growth is thanks in part to manufacturers finally getting Jelly Bean updates out for some older devices, which have unfortunately not been without a few hiccups along the way, and of course all newer phones now shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or higher. Android 4.4 Kit Kat is right around the corner, with an expected announcement any day now, and should spell a fairly significant update if the naming change says anything. Given that Google has stuck with the Jelly Bean name for 3 versions of Android now, one can only surmise that even though Kit Kat is Android 4.4, a seemingly incremental update, the significant name change from Jelly Bean has to mean a few big things. There’s certainly one big thing that everyone wants though, and that’s faster updates to the newest version of the world’s most popular mobile operating system, and it’s a big dot on our wishlist for Kit Kat.