Android OS Latest Distribution Stats

Near the beginning of every month, just like clockwork, Google updates its Developer Dashboard website with updated Android Platform Stats. As we’ve said many times in the past, these numbers show the current state of Android ecosystem fragmentation–both in terms of version/API adoption, as well as screen size and density, and OpenGL support. As such, this is all incredibly valuable information for developers looking to better target their application development efforts.

The last time we took a look at the Android Platform Stats were pleased to see quite a bit of continued growth in the right direction. Android 4.4.x KitKat was up to 17.9% from 13.6% the month before, resulting in a 32% relative growth. But just as we’ve seen in previous months, Android 2.x still was hanging around at 14.6% of devices last month.

This month, we’ve continued the positive trend in KitKat adoption, but just as was the case last time around, the rate of adoption is slowing as more and more flagship and former flagships receive KitKat. This month, Android 4.4.x KitKat saw a 16.8% relative growth, which resulted in a total of 20.9% of active installs. Surprisingly, Android 2.x is actually up one tenth of one percent to 14.3%, and this is due to Gingerbread going from 13.5% to 13.6%. We shouldn’t be too concerned with the increase per se, as this is likely a stats collection artifact, but the lack of a decrease could signal that the platform’s Gingerbread problem will remain for quite some time.

Another way of looking at the user adoption data is that KitKat is on the rise, but the pace of this formerly meteoric rise has now tempered off for two months, as more and more devices that will get eventually KitKat have already gotten it. 2.x is still holding strong, and perhaps that number will stay this way until those users who are still clinging to their archaic devices are forced to upgrade due to malfunction or growing minimum app requirements. While the growth trends in this month’s adoption stats aren’t quite as rosy as we’ve seen in previous updates, this is still good news given KitKat’s continual rise.

In addition to version stats, the Android Developer Dashboard also reports information regarding screen size and resolution, as well as max supported OpenGL version. This can be seen below:

It’s certainly encouraging to see continual progress in bringing the latest Android versions to more and more devices. Now that we’re just a few short months away from the official release of Android L, only time will tell if future Android version update adoption improves upon what we’ve seen in the past. Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!