Android version stats: Lollipop now on 18.1% of active devices

Google usually updates the information in its developers’ dashboards every month, but it skipped the July release for some reason. That’s why the changes between the previous update (June 1) and the current one (August 3) are quite significant.

Starting with the latest Android version available, Lollipop (Android 5.0 + Android 5.1) is now at 18.1 percent, an impressive 6 percentage points increase compared to the June update. That can be explained by the proliferation of Lollipop running devices, both at the high- and the low-end. Indeed, while in past years, it was pretty common to see new devices launching with outdated Android versions, that’s far less common these days, as even the cheapest phones can keep up with the demands of Lollipop.

KitKat, however, remains the dominant Android version, with 39.3 percent, a fraction more than last month’s 39.2%. The combined share of Jelly Bean dropped, from 34.7 percent in June, to 33.6 right now. Meanwhile, the shabby Gingerbread and Froyo continue their prolonged descent into oblivion, now scoring 4.6 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. It’s safe to assume that we will be saying goodbye to Froyo in the coming months, as Google stops counting versions that have less than 0.1 percent of the market.

These stats include active Android devices, which Google defines as phones that have checked into Google’s Play Store app. As such, it doesn’t include non-Google Android devices, including the hundreds of millions of smartphones used in China.

As the second part of the year is traditionally a time of growth in the smartphone business, we expect Lollipop’s share to pick up over the coming months. Android M has been promised for Q3 2015 (by the end of September), but it’s likely that M-running devices won’t be captured in Google’s dashboard until December.