It is customary for us to do posts on the stagnant state of Android OS versions but it seems like the issue grows only worse with time, which is what actually happens as well. The latest data from Google shows that the latest OS version, Marshmallow, trails Lollipop not only in size, but also the speed of adoption.
The data on Google’s developer site collected from Play Store users’ data shows the version 6.0 (Marshmallow) is running on a ‘massive’ 2.3% of devices, months after getting released initially to public. It’s up from 1.2% from February though. During the same period, Lollipop grew from 34.1 to 36.1 percent, with both of its major updates (5.0 and 5.1) having 16.9 and 19.2 percent users respectively.
Other OS versions saw noticeable drops in their shares, with KitKat 4.4 dropping from 35.5 to 34.3 percent, Jelly 24.7 to 22.3 percent, and Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread and Froyo to 2.3, 2.6 and 0.1 percent respectively. Data for earlier devices is not known due to the unavailability of Play Store on them.
This is tense, not only for the millions of users who are stuck on previous OS versions, but also for Google especially if you consider Lollipop was an operating system released way back in November 2014 during the days of the LG G2 and the Galaxy S5.
Marshmallow is yet to arrive on a lot of flagships in the coming few weeks, on phones like the Xperia X series, LG G5 and the Galaxy S7 which should help boost the figures up significantly.
Finally, this again contrasts majorly with Apple, which saw its latest OS version soar to 77 percent in under less than a month of release. With millions of devices, and tens of OS versions, not-to-mention the countless skins, that surely appears to be a dream on Android.
