Now we’re talking! And no, this isn’t an April Fool’s Prank. For the first time since Android 4.4 KitKat was launched back in late October of last year, we’re finally seeing some significant adoption for Google’s latest and greatest. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers, shall we?
When we talked about Android’s platform distribution numbers early last month, KitKat was running on 2.5% of devices with access to Google Play Services. While this was a significant proportional rise from February’s 1.8%, the total number still remained quite low. Blame OEM’s, carriers, or even Tom Cruise, but the unfortunate reality of Android is that mass market devices will lag behind Google’s Nexus lineup.
But this past month, something changed. KitKat is now on 5.3% of devices with access to Google Play Services, which is more than double what we had last month. Not only is this a bigger jump numerically, but it’s also a proportionally larger leap. This shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise, however, as various large OEMs such as Samsung, HTC, and LG have been issuing KitKat OTAs to their previous generation flagship and midrange devices.
Now let’s take a look at the rest of the numbers. Last month, we saw that Jelly Bean was approximately the same as it was the month before, hovering at around 62%. This month is no different, as it has only dipped slightly to 61.4%. Similarly, ICS went from 15.2% to 14.3%. But the biggest “loser” this month was Android 2.x, which went from a combined 20.2% to 18.9%. OK, so this isn’t exactly an Earth-shattering change, but it’s progress.
It’s great to see KitKat on the rise, as the whole developer ecosystem benefits from users being on recent versions of Android. And in the coming months, as products announced at this year’s MWC start making their way into more consumer hands, this will only continue to rise. Here’s hoping that we break 10% by next month!
[Source: Android Developer Dashboard]