
Google first announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean around 8 months ago, and after all this time, the latest version (Android 4.1 and 4.2) has slow rolled itself onto 16.5 percent of all Android devices. Gingerbread (Android 2.3.x) is still the most prevalent version of Android, accounting for 44.1 percent of all Android gadgets, which is based on those that have accessed Google Play within the past 14 days, Google reports.
Gingerbread will likely retain its lead for several more months to come, though if you combine Ice Cream Sandwhich (Android 4.0.x) with Jelly Bean, it falls to second place. ICS accounts for 28.6 percent of all Android devices, bringing the total to 45.1 percent for all Android devices running a 4.x build.
The dirty "F" word in the Android camp is "fragmentation," a seemingly inevitable result of having an open source operating system as popular as Android. While Google-brand phones like the Nexus 4 are quick to receive the latest builds, third-party handsets and tablets typically take much longer because of the amount of testing that needs to be done, especially with third-party overlays and carrier customizations.
As a whole, Android smartphones dominant the landscape with a 52.3 percent share of the market, according to the latest data from comScore. Apple's iOS platform is in second place with a 37.8 percent share, followed by BlackBerry at 5.9 percent, Microsoft at 3.1 percent, and Symbian at 0.5 percent.
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