Android Jelly Bean now on 40% of devices, Google says
Jelly Bean is growing, now accounting for nearly half of all Android devices, according to Google's stats for July.
Android Jelly Bean keeps jumping up. It accounted for 40 per cent of all active Android devices in July, according to Google.
The company's Android developer dashboard page shows Jelly Bean is now on 40.5 per cent of devices, compared to 37.9 per cent in June. Gingerbread, meanwhile, is on the wane, making up 33.1 per cent, down from 34.1 per cent in June.
Ice Cream Sandwich is the third most popular version of Android, accounting for 22.5 per cent of all devices active in the month.
These figures aren't completely concrete. They only count devices that accessed the Google Play Store during a 14-day period, ending on 1 August. But they're the most accurate figures we have.
The latest version of Jelly Bean is Android 4.3, and is available now on the Nexus 4 smart phone. It'll also come as standard on the Nexus 7 tablet, when that's released. But Google chose to release its Moto X smartie in the States running the slightly older Android 4.2.2 instead. Strange.
One analyst reckons that the growth of Jelly Bean is down to the recent glut of cheap smart phones that run it.
There were rumours Google's new Nexus 7 and Moto X would show off the next version of Android, Key Lime Pie, but that's not the case. Which actual features will make it into Key Lime Pie is still a closely-guarded secret, but here's a few we'd like to see for starters.
The fact there are lots of devices running different versions of Android is still a bit of an issue for Google, as some apps won't work on certain phones or tablets. Apple tends to gloat that all its iOS devices are updated at the same time, while owners of certain Android phones are kept waiting -- sometimes in vain -- for the latest software.
Which version of Android are you running? Is fragmentation holding Android back? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.