Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Finally Beats Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has become the dominant Android OS with 37.9% of the market compared to Gingerbread with 34.1% of the market. This is the first time Jelly Bean has exlipsed Gingerbread. Ice Cream sandwich is now left in a distant third with 23.3% of the market.

In order of most popular (used) versions of Android:

·         Jelly Bean (4.1/4.2)

·         Gingerbread (2.3)

·         Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0)

·         Froyo (2.2)

·         Eclair (2.1)

·         Honeycomb (3.0)/Donut (1.6)

Regardless of Android Jelly Bean finally starting to become more dominant, Android device software fragmentation is undoubtedly a serious problem. Along with customized UI’s, the older Android versions make it difficult for Google to offer timely Android OS updates to a wide range of devices. While Google can take hear that older OS versions like Froyo, Éclair, Donut and Honeycomb are scarcely used anymore there are still problems with rolling out the upcoming Android 4.3 Jelly Bean which is expected at the end of this month.

“Last month, Samsung rival Apple took a swipe at Android fragmentation by adding a pie chart to its website that said 93 percent were using iOS 6, 6 percent were on iOS 5, and 1 percent were on an earlier iOS. The pie chart was clearly a nod to the charts featured on Google's Android developer website.”

Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie could help resolve some of the difficulty because it is rumored to be capable of running on phones with as little as 512 MB of RAM, meaning many older devices could finally get Android OS updates. Of course users will likely have to wait till October when the Key Lime Pie update is expect. It may take longer for those with older devices, several months after October is most likely since flagship handsets like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z will get priority for the update.

Still, this is good news for Android developers and users alike.