Google has
shared the updated monthly Android distribution data according to which Android 4.1 and 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest versions of Android are now on 25 percent of all Android devices. It's worth pointing out that starting this month the data charts will be based on the data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store to make it more accurate and reflect the percentage of users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem, according to Google. Prior to this, data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers. In the last
report, Jelly Beans' share was 16.5 percent.
As per the data released by Google for the month of April, the percentage of devices currently running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.x) is 29.3 percent, a marginal increase of 0.7 percent compared to last month.
Meanwhile, Gingerbread (Android 2.x) is now well below the 50 percent mark running on 39.8 percent of all Android devices according to the latest data. This comes as good news for Google and for app developers as more users are switching to newer iterations of Android. Last month, Gingerbread (Android 2.x) had registered a share of 44.2 percent. This indicates that there's been a decline of 4.4 percent in Gingerbread's user share. But the data is not really comparable as there's been a major change in Google's data collection methodology, as we pointed out earlier.
The combined share of Android 2.2 and 2.1 is now reaching the 5.7 percent mark, down from 9.5 percent last month which is also good news.
As we pointed out during the release of last month's report, the real challenge for Google would be to see more devices running Jelly Bean, as Ice Cream Sandwich penetration saturates and new devices come with the new version of the OS. However, Google is expected to announce the next version of Android, Key Lime Pie, in May at its I/O event, so fragmentation will still prevail.