Hello December! With the first of every month, Google flexes its Android OS share muscles to show us where we are sitting as a whole. Our beloved OS muscle has shifted quite a bit in the last month.
If you are not privy to the reported numbers from November 1st, I will be glad to enlighten everyone.
- Android 1.5 – 7.9%
- Android 1.6 – 15.0%
- Android 2.1 – 40.8%
- Android 2.2 – 36.2%
As you can see, OS version 1.5 is still slowly on the decline but still holding in there. 1.6 moved down nearly 5%, with the most notable increase being Android 2.2 moving up 7.2% in the last month.
These numbers are looking much more appealing every single month. Soon we should see Android 1.5 fall off entirely. I fear 1.6 will still hold out for at least six more months due to upgrade time frames. Especially the G1 owners, I know most of you are just about up for your upgrade but may have a little time left.
Still though, the gaps are closing steadily every month. This is what we want to see. With Android 2.3, AKA Gingerbread, on the horizon and Honeycomb not too terribly far after that, we will be adding new slices to the pie just as we finally fade one out.
With technology jumping leaps and bounds it seems every week, I am fairly certain the pie chart we have grown to love will never be one single OS version. There really is no possible way to move the millions of devices out there to one particular version. The developers try to do their best with custom ROM’s and the carriers, but they do whatever they want.
Does anyone out there really believe we will ever diminish this pie to 1 or maybe 2 OS versions?
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Well, most Android devices that run 2.2 should get the 2.3 update. I feel that they may not do it as fast as we hope, but it will be done. As for 2.1, most devices are pretty much stuck on 2.1. 1.6 should phase out, like you said, over a period of time. 1.5 will phase out.
1.5/1.6 will eventually fade out, but the devices with 2.1 are slowly getting their upgrades. My friend recently told me he’s getting Froyo soon….which is pretty slow imo as Gingerbread is coming out soon.
The upgrading time frame is just way too slow.