The Android ecosystem is constantly changing as users adopt new versions of the mobile OS. For a while now, Jelly Bean has been king after taking the majority rule from Gingerbread. While Jelly Bean will remain the new Gingerbread for quite some time, KitKat is starting to see some growth.
In the latest Android distribution numbers, Google reports that Jelly Bean is now on 62 percent of all devices. Last month, it was on 60.7 percent of all Android devices. Interestingly enough, Android 4.1 saw a minor decline as more users moved onto versions 4.2 or 4.3.
As for KitKat, it saw a small bump from 1.8 percent to 2.5 percent. More and more devices from last year are beginning to get KitKat upgrades so we can expect to see this number rise more in the coming months. The impending launches of KitKat devices, like the Galaxy S5 and all new HTC One, should help lead KitKat to more marketshare as well.
Both Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich saw either a 1 percent or nearly 1 percent decline in February. Both versions continue to grow more obsolete as devices launch with at least Jelly Bean these days. It can be assumed that Gingerbread is only sticking around thanks to the millions of devices around the world that still run the aging mobile OS.
Now that we’re three months in the new year, we can also start speculating as to when Google will unveil the next version of Android. We usually bet on Google I/O, but that wasn’t the case last year. In fact, Google unveiled Android 4.3 after I/O and then released KitKat in October. Of course, Android 4.5 being unveiled at Google I/O isn’t out of the question. At this point, however, it seems a little unlikely.
Image via Android Developers