Android distribution data updated for December, KitKat hits 34% usage

Google, as it does at the beginning of every month, has updated the Android distribution data this time reflecting data collected during the last week of November. KitKat continues its slow climb up this month, rising to 33.9 percent from 30.2 percent last month. Every other Android version, as a result, fell in usage.

Jelly Bean fell from 50.9 percent last month to 48.7 percent this month, while Ice Cream Sandwich fell to 7.8 percent from 8.5 percent last month. Gingerbread saw a modest decline from 9.8 percent to 9.1 percent. Froyo continues to hang-on by a thread, falling from 0.6 percent to 0.5 percent.

Noticeably missing from this month’s data is the progress of the latest version of Android, Lollipop. Google says that in order to appear on the distribution chart, a version must hold at least 0.1 percent of the usage share. It seems unlikely that such a small portion of Android users are using Lollipop, though. Another explanation is that Google simply chose to leave Lollipop out of this month’s data to let it gain more traction and make the usage number seem even better when it’s finally announced in January.

Android distribution data is collected by tracking which versions of Android visit the Google Play Store most often during a 7-day testing period at the end of every month. For this reason, the data does not include information running anything lower than Android 2.2, as they do not support the latest Play Store app.