Saying the words “Android fragmentation” is always a good way to kick-start a fierce debate among smartphone fans. Some say it's one of the unavoidable consequences of a truly open platform, others that it's a disorganised, confused mess.
Whatever your own take on the matter, one thing is certain: Android 2.3 Gingerbread is still the most dominant favour of Android, almost a year now since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich emerged.
In fact, its market share among the Android faithful hasn't dropped appreciably in half a year now, with the uptake of Ice Cream Sandwich and now Jelly Bean coming at largely the same pace as versions of the OS older than Gingerbread are losing ground.
That's not to say Ice Cream Sandwich isn't gaining ground: it is, it's just doing so painfully slowly – by around 3-4% a month, not helped by the fact that low-end Android devices are still emerging today with Gingerbread on board.
The latest figure is 23.7%, correct at the end of September, with Jelly Bean now showing up on 1.8% of Android devices.
Gingerbread remains far ahead, though, on 55.8%, and with Jelly Bean already starting to build, there's every chance it – and not ICS – will be the number one version of Google's OS in use once Gingerbread's popularity finally starts to fade.
Via Engadget
