No surprises from the Android distribution numbers for September
We’re getting new Android distribution numbers this week, and the results for September 2017 show a positive shift for the platform. Every version except Nougat, which is the last widely-available release, experienced a drop from last month. Only Nougat saw growth on Android devices around the world.
These are the percentage point changes from last month:
- Nougat: +2.3%
- Marshmallow: -0.1%
- Lollipop: -0.4%
- KitKat: -0.9%
- Jelly Bean: -0.7%
- Ice Cream Sandwich: -0.1%
- Gingerbread: -0.1%
Despite being released a year ago, Nougat is still not the most popular version of Android. Marshmallow, released in 2016, holds that title. Nougat is on 15.8% of Android devices while Marshmallow is on 32.2% of them. That means around 316 million of the 2 billion active Android devices are on Nougat. It sounds mighty, but growth is bound to be stunted now that Oreo is here.
Oreo is nowhere to be found
A few weeks ago, Google started rolling out Oreo for its Pixel and Nexus devices. Not a single non-Google phone or tablet has shipped with or been updated to the newest version of Android yet. So it’s unfair to think Oreo should be appearing on the distribution chart already. But we’re going to see more of the same next month. Oreo will make an appearance, many people will slam Android for fragmentation, and we’ll be onto the next version of Android by the time it makes significant gains.
Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/09/13/android-distribution-september-2017-nougat-grows-oreo-missing/