Google has updated its Android numbers today, and it looks like Android 4.0+ is finally beginning to close in on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which has held the top spot for far too long. With more and more handsets beginning to ship with either Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean these days, it will likely take a while, but we hope to make Gingerbread a distant memory.
Collectively consisting of 39.3% of Android devices, 4.0+ has been pretty slow on the updates. With 10% of devices running Jelly Bean — 6 months after its initial release at Google I/O 2012, this a waiting game that no one wants to play. To make matters worse, Google is likely to announce Key Lime Pie during its annual I/O conference this year, leaving the vast majority of its users behind. This isn’t anything new, but it certainly doesn’t get any easier to watch. Nonetheless, by that time, Android 4.0+ will likely hold the majority of devices. Hey, at least you’ll have the Holo UI at that point.
Android 2.2 and below are still straggling alone, still holding on to 11.6%, but we’re not sure if it’s more sad to be a part of the 1.5% of devices still running Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
At this point, we can pretty much be certain that Google doesn’t have much of a plan to get updates to its users in a faster way, and it’s really not its problem. Manufacturers and carriers are the hold up, so if Google can release an update to the Nexus 4 the day it’s released, the problem doesn’t lie within Google itself. On the flip side of that, one could argue that since Android can be so heavily customized, it is a fault on Google’s part, but what would be the appeal to manufacturers if there’s no way to differentiate?
Either way, Android 4.0+ is making headway, which is a good thing, no matter how long it takes to happen.
[Via: AndroidDevelopers]