December was the fourth anniversary for Android 2.3 Gingerbread—an eternity for smartphones—yet the OS stubbornly refuses to die. The OS that originally shipped in 2010 is still clinging on to 9.1 percent of active devices, and in developing markets it still ships on new devices. Android 2.3 has even outlasted newer versions of Android, like 3.0 Honeycomb (0 percent) and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (7.8 percent).

The staying power of Gingerbread means it is still supported by Google with apps and Play Services updates, and a Gingerbread device today looks very different from what it did when the OS debuted in 2010. We're going to take a look at how the OS has aged over the years, which will serve as a fun look at what really low-end phone software still looks like. It should provide some insight into the practical applications of Google Play Services and how it allows an old OS to still get a lot of the newer features.

Why Gingerbread still exists

Gingerbread is still hanging around for a few reasons. First, if you look at phones, it was easily the longest-tenured version of Android. At the time of Gingerbread's release, a major Android update would usually reign as "the newest version" for about three months. Gingerbread, though, was the newest phone version of Android for 10 months, over three times the normal amount.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb came out about three months after Gingerbread—right on schedule—but Honeycomb was for tablets only. Skipping a version meant phones wouldn't see an upgrade until Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Gingerbread was the current phone version of Android for a very, very long time.

The other issue is system requirements. While Android doesn't have an official "minimum spec," Ice Cream Sandwich significantly bumped the system resources needed by the OS. Android 3.0 added full hardware acceleration to Android, which was carried on to Android 4.0 and put the burden on handset makers to ship competent GPUs with working drivers. A GPU-accelerated UI also meant invoking OpenGL for most processes, which uses more RAM. Device storage is a problem, too. If you check the official Nexus image page, an Ice Cream Sandwich build is about 60 percent bigger than a Gingerbread build for the same device.

If you're building hardware, Gingerbread, while not as capable as the latest version, will allow you to build a cheaper device. Google tried to address this problem in KitKat, which reduced the memory usage enough that devices could run with only 512MB of RAM, but that wasn't enough. Today, low-end devices are still shipping with Gingerbread.

Dragging Gingerbread—kicking and screaming—into the present

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Gingerbread's longevity makes it the oldest version of Android that is still semi-supported by Google. Google Play Services came out in September 2012—a whopping two years after Gingerbread—but it still supports the aging OS. The most important app of any smartphone OS is the app store, and Google has made sure to not leave Gingerbread behind—as you can see in the main article picture, the OS gets the very latest version of the Play Store.

Watching a freshly wiped Gingerbread device hit the Internet for the first time is a fascinating process, which is shown in the gallery above. If you open the included "Android Market" app (the precursor to the Play Store), at first you'll see the 2010-era design, complete with a big green header. There should be a thumbnail carousel in the big green header, but the app is broken due to the lack of support from Google's servers. What does work is the update process, and about a minute of being open, the Android Market will shut down and upgrade itself to the Play Store.

When the Play Store updates, you don't jump right to the current version, you get Play Store 3.9.16. This version of the Play Store is special. It was released in October 2012, making it the first version of the Play Store released after Google Play Services 1.0 went live.

Sure enough, once Play Store 3.9.16 hits our device, Google Play Services starts to silently download and install in the background. After a minute or two, "Google Settings" will show up in the app drawer, indicating that Google Play Services has arrived. Once Play Services has arrived, the Play Store gets updated again, this time to the latest version.

This clunky update process is a great example of the makeup of a Gingerbread device today. Google Play Services works as a "shim" in between an app and the OS, patching new features and APIs in where they are needed. We couldn't update directly to the current Play Store because without Play Services, it just wouldn't work. Play Services fills in the functionality gaps in Gingerbread that the Play Store needs to run.

Gingerbread in 2010 versus today

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Once Gingerbread has Play Services under its belt, there's a lot the OS can offer someone who's still stuck on it. Google still provides supported clients for most of its services, and Google Play Services means third-party apps can take advantage of some of Google's newer APIs.

Play Games, which launched almost three years after Gingerbread, still manages to support the OS, thanks to Play Services. Developers can target the Play Games APIs and get saved cloud data, leaderboards, and other features. Normally something like this would need to be built into the OS, but Play Services takes care of that. The same goes for remote wipe and location features, which are seamlessly patched in.

App support from some areas of Google is excellent. Gingerbread can still run the newest versions of the Play Store, Play Music, Play Games, and Hangouts. You get all the Material Design flourishes, including things like the spinning hamburger/back button.

It's not perfect, though. Many apps got cut off either just before the Material Design update or are stuck somewhere in the Android 4.0-era. Some of the newer Google services, like Inbox, aren't available on Gingerbread at all. Google also doesn't provide a modern browser—Chrome requires Android 4.0.

It's surprising that Google hasn't done any work on the search app. Search is, after all, the company's bread and butter. On Gingerbread the Google app is the same as it was at launch: a boring old search bar. Google Now isn't here, and neither are the company's voice commands.

Much like Microsoft's problem with Windows XP, it looks like Google will have a while to go before it can finally be rid of Gingerbread. It's hard to get rid of something that has been around for so long, especially when the replacement has higher system requirements.

While app support is all over the place, things like Google Play Services ensure that Gingerbread can continue chugging along for a long time. Unless Google releases some kind of ultra-low spec Android version, it's hard to see Gingerbread completely dying any time soon. As nice as the new animation improvements are in Lollipop, for some vendors you just can't beat low hardware requirements.