I hate to be the one to utter the “f” word here, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the signs of fragmentation in the Android world these days. According to new numbers from the Android Developers blog, a mere 0.4 percent of Android device owners (handsets, tablets, et al.) have the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system–2.3, Gingerbread–installed.
That version’s predecessor–Android 2.2, Froyo–is far and away the most widely installed version of the operating system, at 51.8 percent. Due to hardware limitations, manufacturer delays, and other reasons, however, a full 35.2 percent of Android owners still have Android 2.1 installed. The number drops significantly for Android 1.6 and 1.5, at 7.9 and 4.7 percent, respectively.
The above numbers were arrived at by monitoring the devices that accessed the
Android during a two week period ending January 4th. Given the relative recent explosion of Android devices on the market, perhaps these numbers ought be regarded as something of a cautionary tale for Google and the manufacturers about the direction the operating system is going and where it ought to be headed.
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