Google has released new information on the breakdown of Android devices on its developer Website. Things are bad and good. Almost eight months after its release, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) still only accounts for only 17.7 percent of active Android devices, with 2.2 (Froyo) still dominating the charts with a 59.4 percent share of the market. Of course, looking back at the March numbers, the platform shows considerable improvement. At that time, Gingerbread made up less than 1 percent of the market and Froyo had a 61.3 percent share.
Android 3.0 and 3.1 (collectively known as Honeycomb) have not been as fortunate in the last few months. Google’s Tablet-only Android OS still has only a .9 percent share of active devices; it was .2 percent in March. It seems that what we hear about low tablet sales is correct; Android tablets just aren’t selling yet. Either that, or owners aren’t using them. Google gathered this most recent data by monitoring what devices accessed the Android Market for the 14-day period ending July 5.
We highly recommend that you invest in a device that runs at least Android 2.3, if you are in the market for a new phone. Google plans to release its next major version of Android this fall, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. It will attempt to be a platform for all device types, merging the look and features of the tablet OS Honeycomb with the phone features of Gingerbread. Like the Vulcans and Romulans, Google is attempting reunification. Let’s hope it goes better than it did for Spock.
Below are the latest charts for historical reference.
