Android Lollipop Now Running on 21 Percent of Active Devices: Google

According to the latest Google Play distribution data for the seven-day period ending September 7, the number of Android Lollipop-based devices logging into the store is steadily rising, while the share of Android KitKat and Android Jelly Bean powered devices is dropping gradually.

The latest data reveals that Android Lollipop has a total share of around 21 percent of active Android devices (with Android 5.0 Lollipop running on 15.9 percent of devices and Android 5.1 version at 5.1 percent) that check into Google Play compared to 18.1 percent reported at the beginning of August - an increase of 2.9 percent in roughly a month.

The Android Developers' webpage shows that Android 4.4.x KitKat version is going down steadily in charts and now powers 39.2 percent devices compared to 39.3 percent last month - a minute decrease of 0.1 percent.

Android Jelly Bean has a combined share of 31.8 percent - falling 1.8 percent from August's 33.6 percent. Android 4.1.x is seen on 12.1 percent devices (down from 13 percent), Android 4.2.x on 15.2 percent (down from 15.9 percent), and Android 4.3 on 4.5 percent devices (down from 4.7 percent).

Android 4.0.x or Ice Cream Sandwich, in Google's latest numbers, registered a share of 3.7 percent, down 0.4 percent from last month. Android Gingerbread (v2.3.3-2.3.7) and Android 2.2 Froyo's device distribution shares are 4.1 percent (down 0.6 percent) and 0.2 percent (down 0.1 percent) respectively in the report.

The OpenGL version, on the other hand, saw OpenGL 2.0 dominating at 58.3 percent, and OpenGL version 3.0 steadily rising to 37.6 percent. To recall, Android's Lollipop version crossed 10 percent mark in June.

Google is expected to release the final build of the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow alongside new Nexus devices soon.