Android version distribution over time – December 2014 update

This is the second update of a series of posts dedicated to tracking and analysing the Android version distribution over time. The time frame considered in this update covers the last 2 years of Android: December 2012 to December 2014.

If you are interested in older data you can also check the previous update and the first post of the series which cover the Android version distribution since June 2012.

Raw data

The following table contains the data I gathered from the Android developers dashboard in the last two years and shows the distribution share for each Android version (versions with less than 0.1% distribution are not shown):

As you may have noticed, numbers in red are used when a version of Android has lost distribution share (respect the previous month), whereas green numbers represent a growing distribution share.

I should probably point out that since August 2013 this data is gathered from the new Google Play Store app, which supports Android 2.2 and above, devices running older versions are not included, but at that time they accounted for about 1% of devices that checked in to Google servers.

Highlights

In the last 6 months much happened in the Android ecosystem:

Version 2.2 (Froyo) kept losing market share, eve if slower than I expected. It will probably disappear soon though.

kept losing market share, eve if slower than I expected. It will probably disappear soon though. Version 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) keeps losing share, but, according to my projection (based on 2.2), it won’t completely disappear before early 2016.

keeps losing share, but, according to my projection (based on 2.2), it won’t completely disappear before early 2016. Version 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) keeps going down and will probably disappear before 2.3.

keeps going down and will probably disappear before 2.3. Version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is not leading the Android market any more since last September and it constantly declining, it’s still the second most used version though.

is not leading the Android market any more since last September and it constantly declining, it’s still the second most used version though. Version 4.2 (Jelly Bean) was gaining market until last month, but now has started its decline.

was gaining market until last month, but now has started its decline. Version 4.3 (Jelly Bean) is still alternating drops and raises, but the trend is probably going to stay negative in the next few months.

is still alternating drops and raises, but the trend is probably going to stay negative in the next few months. Version 4.4 (Kit Kat) is the rockstar of the last 6 months with a 250% growth since last June. Furthermore it’s the only version which is still gaining market up to December.

The big players

To have a better visual understanding of the data I’ve also created a graph of the evolution of the 6 main versions over time, these are the distributions with more than 1% of market share which overall cover 99.5% of the Android market.

The left axis represents the distribution percentage of a version respect the whole market, whereas the horizontal one is the time.

Overall Jelly Bean is still the most used Android version with a 48.7% of market share, but the raise of KitKat in the last months has been very strong and with the recent release of Android 5.0 Lollipop things probably will be completely different when I’m going to post the next update in 6 months.

I may also decide to publish the next update in 3 months if something interesting happens or if enough people are interested, so if you are, leave a comment and let me know.