It’s that time of the month again, Google has taken stock of all the devices hitting the Google Store and collated the Android version they’re using and supplied some nice data for developers to check. Google supplies this data to help developers choose what versions of Android to target, but really, it’s 4.0 upwards these days to get the best coverage.
The newly launched Marshmallow version of Android has struggled to see significant growth, with mainly Nexus phones and tablets still running the latest version – though phones like the HTC A9 exist, they don’t appear to be in significant numbers. Other than Marshmallow, only Lollipop – both 5.0 and 5.1 versions – saw any growth in market share, with all others losing market share, that is except for Froyo which continues its statistically stubborn 0.2% market share, perhaps we’ll see it disappear one day, but that day won’t be soon given its long history.
As usual, here’s the numbers in an easily digestible table compared to last month:
| Android Version | December | January |
| Android 2.2 (Froyo) | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Android 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) | 3.4% | 3.0% |
| Android 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) | 2.9% | 2.7% |
| Android 4.1.x (JellyBean) | 10.0% | 9.0% |
| Android 4.2.x (JellyBean) | 13.0% | 12.2% |
| Android 4.3 (JellyBean) | 3.9% | 3.5% |
| Android 4.4 (KitKat) | 36.6% | 36.1% |
| Android 5.0 (Lollipop) | 16.3% | 16.9% |
| Android 5.1 (Lollipop) | 13.2% | 15.7% |
| Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) | 0.5% | 0.7% |
