We regularly cover the Android Platform Versions report to see the distribution of Android versions across the devices that acces the Google Play Store. Apple tracks similar metrics for iOS developers and the latest numbers paint a stark comparison to Android’s. According to December 1 numbers, measured by the App Store during the previous 7 days, 74% of iOS devices are now running iOS 7, the latest version of iOS.
In comparison, Android 4.4 KitKat broke the 1% mark at about the same date while Jelly Bean (4.1.x to 4.3) dominates with a 54.1% share. Granted, iOS 7 launched in September and has a couple of months head start on KitKat but it is highly unlikely that we will see similar KitKat adoption numbers two months from now. iOS 6 accounts for a further 22% of the pie, leaving a mere 4% for older versions. In comparison, Android Gingerbread (2.3.3 to 2.3.7), which is now over two years old, still accounts for a 24.1% stake of the Android pie.
Much has been made and will continue to be be made about Android’s fragmentation and while Google has tweaked its numbers some in recent months to present a more positive picture, it’s clear that Apple will continue to point at fragmentation as a significant issue for the Android ecosystem for a while yet.
Source : Apple Developer