KitKat on 34 Percent of Android Devices; Lollipop Yet to Debut: Google

Sharing the distribution data of different versions of Android, Google reported that KitKat OS has a total share of around 34 percent (precisely 33.9 percent) of active Android devices that check into Google Play compared to the 30.2 percent reported at the beginning of November - an increase of 3.7 percent in roughly a month.

Interestingly, Google's latest Android build - Android 5.0 Lollipop - that was released in mid-October, and is now around for more than a month, is yet to make a cut into the chart. The Android Developers' webpage notes, "Any versions with less than 0.1 percent distribution are not shown," tipping that the Android 5.0 Lollipop despite of being rolled out to a bunch of devices has not yet reached the minimum mark.

The Mountain View giant shows that Android Jelly Bean still powers the majority of Android devices, with the combined percentage of 48.7 percent - dropping 2.2 percent from November's 50.9 percent. The Android 4.1.x is seen on 21.3 percent devices, Android 4.2.x on 20.4 percent and Android 4.3 on 7 percent devices.

Android 4.0.x or Ice Cream Sandwich, in Google's December report, registered a share of 7.8 percent, down 0.7 percent from November. Android Gingerbread (v 2.3.3-2.3.7) and Android 2.2 Froyo's device distribution shares are 9.1 percent (down 0.7 percent) and 0.5 percent (down 0.1 percent) respectively in the latest report.

The OpenGL version, on the other hand, saw OpenGL 2.0 at dominating 72.2 percent, and OpenGL version 3.0 steadily rising to 27.8 percent.

Google further adds, "This data is gathered from the new Google Play Store app, which supports Android 2.2 and above, devices running older versions are not included. However, in August, 2013, versions older than Android 2.2 accounted for about 1 percent of devices that checked in to Google servers (not those that actually visited Google Play Store)."

Interestingly, Apple's iOS 8 within three months of its public release is powering the majority (60 percent) of active iOS devices. It took Google's Android 4.4 KitKat version 13 months to reach 34 percent of the worldwide users, according to Google's figures shared in December.