Android OS Update: Gingerbread cracks 50% just in time for the holidays

And now for your quarterly Android fragmentation update. What relatively obscure desert are Android users chowing down on these days?

Gingerbread (2.3x) has finally cracked 50% while Froyo (2.2) is still running on 35% of Android devices. The rest are using 2.1 (Eclair), 1.6 (Donut) and frighteningly enough, 1.5 (Cupcake). Worth noting: 3.0 – 3.2 are Honeycomb which is the tablet based OS.

Android fragmentation has been a challenge for android app developers since the berth of the platform. The wide array of carriers and devices running the Android OS are the main contributing factors. OEM’s and carriers have a nasty habit of not pushing out the latest updates for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is getting their own propriety interfaces (looking at you, HTC Sense) functioning properly on the new OS before pushing the update. To make matters worse, new devices often ship with an outdated OS.

Source: Android Developers

Filed under: Product Engineering | Topics: android, android app developer, android developer