Data & Research

Android update surge: 4 out 10 devices now running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean

Old versions falling away

Android update surge: 4 out 10 devices now running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean
Almost 40 percent of all Android owners are now running one of the two latest versions of the platform according to new numbers published by Google.

Said stats reveal that 29.1 percent of Android devices monitored during a 14 day period ending 3 January were running version 4.0.3 or 4.0.4, better known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

Jelly Bean – which stretches across Android versions 4.1 and 4.2 – accounts for a total of 10.2 percent of devices.

Moving on

That means that close to 4 out of every 10 devices on the market now run the most recent version of Google's platform. That's up from the 33.8 percent figure published by Google in December.



Google has long been criticised for requiring developers to cater games for too many different versions of Android at the same time, leading to scores of titles failing to run correctly on certain devices.

Use of older versions of the OS, however, appears to be slowly falling away, allowing developers to focus on the most recent releases. Nevertheless, January numbers show that Gingerbread – Android version 2.3 – remains top dog, however, with 47.6 percent of all devices on the market.

In all, Google claims to be activating more than 1.3 million Android devices worldwide every day.

[source: Google]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.