Google has released its latest set of data showing which versions of its Android operating system are most used by smartphone users across the world. And not much of a surprise, Gingerbread (and in particular versions Android versions 2.3.3 -2.3.7) are the most popular Android OS with a total share of 58 per cent. That’s an increase from last month’s 55 percent. The latest Ice Cream Sandwich operating system accounts for just one per cent of phones.
The Froyo OS still ranks second, though its share continues to shrink, now down to 27.8 per cent as compared to last month’s 30 per cent. Honeycomb never had a major share, but still retains third spot with 3.4 per cent – a slight improvement since the last report. However, it is believed that the latest ICS OS will dent the growth of the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS. The data was collected within a two week period, ending as on February 1, 2012.
Even as a number of Android users point out the fragmentation issue, Google chairman Eric Schmidt says different flavours provide greater choices to users. Schmidt believes the variation will prompt developers choose Android ahead of iOS and help the Google OS surpass the rival by June this year.
Google, however, did not provide any specific data about the number of devices covered for the analysis. The latest set of data comes weeks after Google’s Andy Rubin announced that every day 70,000 new Android devices were being registered with Google. Going by Rubin’s estimates, the total number of Android devices is likely to be somewhere 230 million as on December, 2011.
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