Almost since the inception of Android, differentiation has been a constant problem for various manufacturers. The update has never been as smooth as other operating systems, mobile or desktop, and developers have had to deal with multiple versions at once, offering many new features that are not compatible with the old terminals.
Throughout the growth of Android, Google has been developing this feature and over the last two years we have seen how fast the number of edges has increased. Beyond that, segmentation is still seen as a problem, but we didn't know since Google stopped publishing Android distribution logs for a year.
Now they've done it again, though it can only be developed by Android Studio.
The distinction is still very real
In XDA Developers build a table for distribution with smaller versions of Android, separating for example Android 4.1 Jelly Bean from Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. We've simplified it by focusing on seasonal changes.
| Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" | 0.2% |
| Android 4.1 – 4.2 – 4.3 "Jelly Bean" | 1.7% |
| Android 4.4 "KitKat" | 4% |
| Android 5 "Lollipop" | 9.2% |
| Android 6 "Marshmallow" | 11.2% |
| Android 7 "Nougat" | 12,9% |
| Android 8 "Oreo" | 21.3% |
| "Pie" for Android 9 | 31.3% |
| Android 10 | 8.2% |
Half a year after the official launch of Android 10, less than 10% of the terminals have access to the Google Play Store with this version of the system. At least, most devices are the current version. Between Android 9 and Android 8 add up to 50% of the total.
It's amazing to see more than 15% device conversions over five years, compatible with Android 5 or earlier. In fact, there are more models with Lollipop than Android 10.
It's pretty clear that Google still has a lot to improve on this, but at least we're happy to be able to return statistics that allow us to analyze month-to-month how divisions are coming from Android.
