Android distribution numbers for July show steady Marshmallow climb

Anyone who is particularly familiar with the Android operating system is aware of the fragmentation of the ecosystem. All by itself, this isn’t a world-ending calamity by any means, but since there are so many different versions of the OS drifting about in the world, it makes keeping devices securely patched a ballooning problem. Marshmallow in particular has seen a notoriously glacial rollout, as continues to be evidenced in July 2016’s distribution figures.

With Nougat well on its way, Marshmallow has only managed to snag 13.3 percent of the Android ecosystem. This figure is up from 10.1 percent last month, but both Lollipop and KitKat are still dominating in terms of global usership. The two combined represent more than 65 percent of Android devices worldwide. Kitkat is still sitting pretty at 30.1 percent use, and Lollipop is still at 35.1 percent. Jelly Bean has been squeezed down to 17.8 percent, and Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread are each hovering just below the 2 percent mark. Even Froyo is clinging to a desperate .1 percent.

It’s been reasoned that Nougat will have a subdivided architecture that will aim to make fragmentation less of an issue in the very-long term, but in the meantime, some security researchers are advising that users only purchase Nexus or Samsung devices, since those are the only brands that are actively rolling out security updates to their devices in a timely manner.

What are your thoughts regarding this month’s Android distribution numbers? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!