The latest Android platform usage report has been released by Google, providing a high-level breakdown of OS version popularity based upon active devices that were used to access the Google Play Store in the seven-day period ending October 26. Furthermore, as has been the case with prior roundups, AOSP devices are excluded from the gathered statistics.
This time around, it's been almost two months since Google published its last report towards the beginning of September.
| Version | Codename | API | September | This month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3.3 - 2.3.7 | Gingerbread | 10 | 0.3% | 0.2% | -0.1 |
| 4.0.3 - 4.0.4 | Ice Cream Sandwich | 15 | 0.3% | 0.3% | - |
| 4.1.x | Jelly Bean | 16 | 1.2% | 1.1% | -0.1 |
| 4.2.x | 17 | 1.8% | 1.5% | -0.3 | |
| 4.3.x | 18 | 0.5% | 0.4% | -0.1 | |
| 4.4 | KitKat | 19 | 8.6% | 7.6% | -1.0 |
| 5.0 | Lollipop | 21 | 3.8% | 3.5% | -0.3 |
| 5.1 | 22 | 15.4% | 14.4% | -1.0 | |
| 6.0 | Marshmallow | 23 | 22.7% | 21.3% | -1.4 |
| 7.0 | Nougat | 24 | 20.3% | 18.1% | -2.2 |
| 7.1 | 25 | 10.5% | 10.1% | -0.4 | |
| 8.0 | Oreo | 26 | 11.4% | 14.0% | 2.6 |
| 8.1 | 27 | 3.2% | 7.5% | 4.3 |
Unsurprisingly, Android 8.x Oreo has once again notched up the largest gains with a combined increase of 6.9 percentage points, boosting it up to an admirable 21.5%, albeit almost 11 months after initial launch, but still short of its immediate predecessors, Nougat, which still garners 28.1%. Also of note was the observed improvement in Oreo usage, almost tripling the increase recorded the last report of 2.5 points.
Meanwhile, after a net change of zero last time around, total Android 7.x usage fell by 2.6 points with the majority comprised of the first iteration of Nougat. In fact. All other major versions of Android tracked as part of the analysis, aside from Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich which saw shares remain stagnant, recorded losses of between 0.5 and 1.4 points during the reporting period.
One notable absentee from the roundup continues to be the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 9.0 Pie, which still has not been able to muster up the minimum 0.1% of recorded usage necessary to appear in the stats. While the company's own Pixel handsets have attempted to lead the way in the Android ecosystem, even an update for the OnePlus 6 failed to move the needle enough to help the latest variant of the popular OS get its leg up in the charts.
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