Jelly Bean likely to be on majority of Android devices within a week or so

The latest Android stats from Google show that Jelly Bean is now installed on 48.6 percent of Android devices, and given current growth rates is likely to break the magic 50 percent barrier within a week or two. Jelly Bean became the most-used version of Android back in July.

The rather less impressive stat is that more than a quarter of devices – 28.5 percent – are still running Gingerbread, which dates back as far as 2010. It’s also worth pointing out that there are couple of fudge-factors in Google’s stats … 

First, they are derived from use of the Google Play Store app, which is only available in Android 2.2 and up. Older devices thus don’t show up at all, though Google reckons they now account for fewer than 1 percent of all Android devices still in use.

Second, while previous named versions of Android cover either one or two releases, Google has stretched the Jelly Bean name to cover three: 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3. If only the last two releases were lumped together, penetration would be at a rather less impressive 12.1 percent.