Android 4.x Jelly Bean is now on 16.5 percent of devices

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google's Android 4.x Jelly Bean mobile operating system is now on 16.5 percent of Android devices, the company announced on Tuesday, although its older Android 2.3 Gingerbread release continues to lead.

Highlighting the fragmented Android ecosystem, Google has revealed that Android 2.3-2.3.2 Gingerbread still sits on 44.2 percent of devices, despite having been released over two years ago. This has barely fallen since last month, when Android 2.3 Gingerbread was on 45 percent of Android devices.

The latest version of Google's operating system, Android 4.1-4.2 Jelly Bean has seen some growth, and is now sitting pretty on 16.5 percent of Android smartphones and tablets, compared to the 13.6 percent share it had in February. It's struggling to catch up with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich though, which continues to account for 28.6 percent of devices.

Android 1.6 Donut still sits on 0.2 percent of devices, while Android Éclair, Froyo and Honeycomb account for 1.9 percent, 7.6 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. This is likely due to those who picked up a cheap Android device without even knowing what the operating system was, and who will never get around to updating their smartphone.

Of course these figures aren't 100 percent accurate, as Google said it took the statistics from devices that accessed the Google Play store within the last two weeks, ending on 4 March. However, the statistics do highlight the continued fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, which is unlikely to change any time soon.

In fact, it's probably going to get worse.Google is widely expected to unveil its next generation mobile operating system Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie at its Google I/O conference in May, which probably will make its debut on a new Nexus device. µ