Google's Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, operating system pushed its share of the user base to over 7 percent in May, even as Android experienced a tiny sliver of a market share decline in April, according to data from ComScore. Android's share of the smartphone market remains at a comfortable 50 percent, but the foot-dragging by carriers and manufacturers using the platform in getting the newest iteration of the operating system can't be doing it any favors.

ComScore's most recent stats show Android crossing the 50-percent mark in the period from January to April, growing from 48.6 percent to 50.8 percent. However, comparing it to a second dataset with figures ending in March shows that the OS may have backslid almost imperceptibly, from 51 percent to 50.8.

Statistical error could explain this away, but Android has been coasting for some time, even as RIM ceded 3.6 market share and Microsoft lost 0.4 percent, down to 4.0 percent, from January to April. This is markedly different from the meteoric rise the platform was experiencing this time last year while Apple stagnated.

The installed base of ICS experienced more growth, rising to 7.1 percent of all Android phones from 2.9 percent two months ago. ICS was first released seven months ago; by ten months after its release, Android 2.3 Gingerbread had reached 40 percent of Android phones (though it, too, took significant time to catch up to its Froyo predecessor).