Jelly Bean now on over half of all Android devices

Android Jelly Bean is now on more than half of all active Android devices, according to stats from Google.

The last-but-one version of Google's mobile operating system made up 52.1 per cent of all Android devices, the company said on its Android Developers blog. That's only up very slightly on last month. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean accounts for 37.3 per cent of all devices, 4.2 is 12.5 per cent, and 4.3 is 2.3 per cent.

The data was collected during a seven-day period ending on 1 November. It counts all Android devices connecting to the Google Play Store. So it's not 100 per cent accurate, but it's the best we've got.

Android Gingerbread is still clinging on in second place, on 26.3 per cent of all devices, which is down a couple of per cent on last month. Ice Cream Sandwich -- the version that came directly before Jelly Bean -- is third, notching up 19.8 per cent of all devices. That's only a teensy bit less than last month.

Google unveiled Android KitKat this week on the brand spanking new Nexus 5. It's too new to register in the stats, as the Nexus 5 only went on sale on Thursday evening. And it promptly sold out. The black version did, anyway.

The fact Gingerbread -- released way back in 2010 -- is still used on so many devices shows that fragmentation is still a big problem for Android. It's great making apps for the newest software, and making use of all its new tricks, but it's a shame if most people are still stuck running a three-year-old version of the OS.

KitKat should help combat this fragmentation, as it's designed to run on low-end devices as well as the powerhouses. It'll come to other handsets besides the Nexus 5 in the coming weeks.

Are you looking forward to KitKat? Which version of Android are you running? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.