On the heels of the Apple iOS 11 announcement, Google released its latest Android Distribution numbers. What comes like a sigh of relief for the popular OS maker is that its newest iteration of the Android OS – Android Nougat is now picking pace with around 9.5 percent devices running the platform as of this month. The growth is a significant jump from last month’s 7.1 percent adoption. The positive growth can be attributed to the launch of multiple smartphones in the recent past which run on the Android Nougat OS out-of-the-box. Also Read - WhatsApp to drop support for iPhones running iOS 9: Report
Also Read - Apple iPhone 13 Pro to sport major camera improvements with sensor-shift image stabilizationAccording to the latest Android Distribution figures, if one has to segregate the latest OS, then the Android 7.0 Nougat constitutes about 8.9 percent while the 7.1 update forms about 0.6 percent, taking the total distribution to over nine percent. After Nougat, Marshmallow is evidently the second-largest version running across Android devices. The distribution for this month now stands at 31.2 percent, unchanged since the beginning of May. Also Read - Apple now lets you transfer iCloud photos to Google Photos: Here's how
Android Lollipop, which continues to run on a large number of smartphones, including some recently launched Samsung Galaxy J3 Pro, now runs on a total of 30.8 percent of Android devices with Android 5.0 on 8.2 percent devices and 5.1 update running on the remaining 22.6 percent. It is worth mentioning that last month, Android 5.0 was as at 8.7 percent of users while the Android 5.1 was at 23.3 percent. ALSO READ: How to get Android 7.1.2 Nougat Beta on your Google Pixel, Pixel XL and Nexus devices
Talking about other versions, Android 4.4 KitKat continues to form a significant chunk on the distribution scale with 18.1 percent users on the older OS. The number of users on Android Gingerbread is also declining with only 0.8 percent remaining on the latest chart. The Ice Cream Sandwich version also stands at 0.8 percent. Both these versions are on the brink of extinction as more recent versions take over.
Coming Fall, Google is expected to release the Android O which will run on the rumored second generation of Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. Android O is layered with interesting features for enhanced multi-tasking. It includes Picture-in-Picture mode and Apple s 3D Touch feature among others. While there s been no official announcement yet, it is widely speculated that Android O will be the Android 8.0 version.
