Google has once again updated its Android Platform Versions report. This latest summary, dated March 3, 2014, reveals no big surprises: The various versions of Android 4.x, including Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and KitKat continue to make slow but steady inroads while older versions slowly fade away but probably more slowly than Google would want .
Both Android Jelly Bean (versions 4.1.x to 4.3) and KitKat (4.4) continue to make gains, 1.3% for Jelly Bean and 0.7% for KitKat over February. The latter’s numbers should start to increase more quickly when new devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia X2 start to hit the street.
Meanwhile, Gingerbread finally dropped below 20% but still accounts for nearly one in five Android devices. It will not be going anywhere any time soon.
As part of our regular comparison to iOS, similar numbers published by Apple on February 26 show that iOS 7 is now on 82% of all iOS devices with iOS 6 accounting for 15%. Older versions continue to cling to a 3% share. Because Apple does not break down this information further, it’s not clear how many devices have been upgrades to the latest version of iOS 7 and iOS 6 to deal with a recent SSL verification vulnerability. It is likely to be a significant number already though.
Google regularly publishes the Android Platform Versions report to help developers decide versions of Android to support in their apps. It also gives us a snapshot at the state of the Android universe at a specific point in time.
Sources : Google Developers // Apple Developer