New Android Distribution Figures Show Substantial Oreo Gains

- April 17, 2018

Google has released a new series of distribution figures for its Android OS, showing substantial gains for Android Oreo and Nougat over the past few several weeks. Specifically, these are the latest figures from the week ending on April 16. The abundance of devices running the latest Android variants is undoubtedly the result of the new devices released over the past few weeks. That shouldn't be too surprising since MWC 2018 did take place over that period. Most recently launched or announced devices since February's distribution report have invariably run the latest two versions of the mobile operating system.

Breaking down the numbers, Android Oreo's figures rose collectively by 3.5-percent. The majority of that is attributable to Android 8.0, which landed at 4.1-percent from its previous 0.8-percent. The share of the ecosystem taken by Android 7.0 through 7.1 (Nougat) increased by 0.3-percent and 1.6-percent, respectively. That means Nougat still takes the lion's share with 30.8-percent. Android Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and 4.1 Jellybean remained relatively stable, with a total of 2.4-percent of the market share. Every other version of Android saw moderate decreases in usage, though. Jellybean's overall use dropped by 0.5-percent, while KitKat's figures fell by 1.5-percent. Similarly, Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop's figures were down by 1.7-percent, collectively. Finally, Android Marshmallow's figures were down by 2.1-percent, landing at 26-percent.

As mentioned above, the gains seen here are hardly surprising, since there have been so many great new devices launched across every portion of the price spectrum recently. There have also been a substantial number of older devices receiving updates. With that said, despite gaining such a large number of devices over the period in question, Oreo still doesn't show any signs of overtaking Android Nougat any time soon. There's also not anything unusual about that. In fact, it appears to follow the more general trend over Android's lifespan. From a historical perspective, Android Nougat will most likely maintain its dominance until well after Android P launches. That's not expected to take place until sometime after Google's I/O Developers Conference, which takes place toward the middle of May. So 2019 may be well underway before Android Oreo takes the lead.