Google has released the latest distribution numbers for the various shipping versions of Android, with the latest version, Marshmallow, picking up a marginal increase.
Last month’s numbers showed Android 6.0 running on only 0.3% of devices, while this month’s chart puts it at 0.5%, making it the least-used version of Android except for Froyo.
The latest Android distribution numbers for a seven-day period ending November 3rd reveal that KitKat is installed on 30.2% of devices that accessed the Play Store during the last week. Meanwhile, the distribution of the over two-year-old Jelly Bean version continued to decline, but remains the leading platform, with a 50.1% share.
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Like it always does during the first half of a new month, Google this evening updated its Android Distribution data to reflect a 7 day period ending on August 12th. The data shows the most recent version of Android, KitKat, reach an all-time usage high at 20.9 percent, up from 17.9 percent this time last month. Jelly Bean continued its steady decline, falling from 56.5 percent to 54.2 percent.
Like it does at the beginning of every month, Google this afternoon updated its Android distribution numbers to reflect a 7 day period ending today, July 7th. The most recent version of Android, 4.4 KitKat, saw a modest increase from 13.6 percent to 17.9 percent. Jelly Bean, for the first time ever, saw a decline as a whole in usage by 1.9 percent.
As it does at the beginning of every month, Google has just updated the Android Distribution data to reflect data collected during a 7-day period ending on April 1, 2014. Notable this time around is that Android 4.4 KitKat usage more than doubled, rising from 2.5 percent last month to 5.3 percent. Of course, that’s still a very small percentage of the total user base, but growing by double in a month signals that KitKat updates are finally starting to make their way to the masses.
With the rise in KitKat usage came a slight decline in Jelly Bean numbers from an even 62 percent to 61.4 percent . Ice Cream Sandwich declined to 14.3 percent from 15.2 percent last month, while Gingerbread continued to slow demise, going from 19 percent to 17.8 percent.
With this new data, 81 percent of all devices are now running a version of Android 4.0 or greater. This seems respectable, but it’s important to note that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was originally unveiled all the way back in 2011. So it’s apparent that Google can still do even more to improve the Android update progress. But things are improving and that’s what matters.
Google has just updated its Android Distribution numbers to reflect data during a one-week period ending on February 4th. This data is collected by recording what version of Android every device that accesses Google Play is running. Most notably, Jelly Bean has surpassed the 60 percent milestone, going from 59.1 percent to 60.7 percent. KitKat saw very minor growth, increasing from 1.4 percent to 1.8 percent.
No other version of Android saw an increase this time around, with Ice Cream Sandwich falling from 16.9 percent to 16.1 percent and Gingerbread dropping from 20 percent from 21.2 percent.
Also noteworthy is the fact that 80 percent of all Android devices are rocking Android 4.0 or higher, meaning that most have the latest design interface and features from Google.
Google has had problems in the past rolling out updates in a prompt manner to devices, but things have definitely improved over the last year or so. It is, however, disappointing to see the latest version, KitKat, only running on 1.8 percent of devices.
As it does every month, Google has just updated the Android distribution data to reflect the month of July. Jelly Bean is now running on 37.9 percent of devices, with 32.3 percent of those running Android 4.1.x. That’s up from 33 percent this time last month. Gingerbread fell from 36.5 percent to 34.1 percent, which makes Jelly Bean the most used Android operating system. Ice Cream Sandwich is now at 23.3 percent, down from 25.6 percent last month.
Froyo is now at 3.1 percent (was at 3.2 percent), Eclair has fallen to 1.4 percent (was at 1.5 percent), Honeycomb and Donut are both now at just 0.1 percent.
Google collects this data during the first week of each month by logging the devices that access the Play Store. It use to be that the data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers.
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Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 on) has overtaken Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) for the first time, with 28.4 percent of active Android devices now using it against 27.5 percent for ICS …
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The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi just received an update to Android 4.0.4 in the United States.
According to SamMobile:
- Some details about this firmware
- This firmware is specially for USA (Android 4.0.4)
- Build date August
- Changelist: 818980
- PDA: P7510UELPL
- CSC: p7510XABLPL
Many U.S.-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi owners allegedly woke up to Ice Cream Sandwich this morning, as seen in AndroidCentral’s Forums (below). Rumors circulated heavily that the tablet would get the push sometime this summer, and it now seems like those reports are panning out. Some users have noted the flavor is missing for them, however, so the rollout appears to be gradual.
The update is available via Samsung KIES or OTA.
AT&T made things official this morning for Samsung Galaxy Note users by announcing the availability of an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update and Premium Suite from Samsung. While most of us know what to expect with ICS, the Premium Suite will give you access to a number of apps and new features including: the S Note app, which is a widget for quick access to S Memo features, and an app for creating customized notes and greeting cards with S Pen called “My Story”. AT&T also confirmed ICS for the Galaxy S II Skyrocket.
The update is a little hairier than most with the requirement that you connect your device to your Mac or PC and the Kies application. From there, you are hard resetting your device and will lose stuff like Bluetooth devices, Music playlists and apps folders.
The update is available now from Samsung, while a description of the new S Pen capabilities thanks to S Note is below in the full press release:
[tweet https://twitter.com/benjrubenstein/status/192310507179483137]
Google announced on the Google Chrome Blog today an updated version of the “Chrome for Android Beta” app that includes support for 31 additional languages and a few new features highly requested by users. The beta is now available to users in all countries with access to Google Play.
Among the new features is the ability to view the desktop version of a website, add bookmarks to your home screen as shortcuts, select default apps for opening links, and use Chrome with the system proxy for Wi-Fi.
As always, “Chrome for Android Beta” is available free through the Google Play store for Android 4.0 devices. Google also released a change log of fixes, changes, and known issues:
The latest marketshare-ish numbers are in for Android and it seems that people continue to update their phones…to Gingerbread. Almost two-thirds of all Android phones hitting the market in the last two weeks are running Android 2.3.x with a significant share—23.1-percent still on Android 2.2 Froyo. Honeycomb, the Tablet-only fix OS, is at around 3.3-percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich is on a scant 2.9-percent of devices including Galaxy Nexus, Acer Transformer Prime, and newly updated HTC Vivid (along with some custom builds and some unlocked manufacturer phones).
The distribution over time (below) is showing the long haul ICS has ahead of it (and do not forget we are likely going to hear about Jelly Bean at Google I/O in June).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y7yN2EK7ahU]
Google just pushed out an update to the “Maps for Android” app that brings new high-resolution map tiles for pixel dense displays, a new look for Navigation on Android 4.0, and the ability to set a preferred mode of transit for directions.
New high-res map on the right, previous map on the left
In addition to a redesigned home screen for the Navigation feature of the app on Android 4.0 devices, the new higher resolution map tiles provide “a crisper, less cluttered map that is easier to read.” Google noted this would allow you to take full advantage of the pixel density of displays on devices like the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, and Droid Razr.
The high-res tiles will appear when visiting new locations on the map, but you will have to clear the cache in Map settings for previously visited locations. Google explained the benefits:
Your favorite custom keyboard for Android, Swype Beta, just updated with Ice Cream Sandwich compatibility (via Android Central). Sadly, this update still does not make Swype available on the Android Market, but you can download it from the Swype website. For those of you unfamiliar: Swype is a custom keyboard preloaded on a few phones that lets you drag a finger across the keyboard to type. It is very intuitive and definitely worth a try.
Besides seeing ICS compatibility, Swype Beta also saw an upgrade for improved word accuracy, new downloadable languages, and add-ons with DragonGo.
You can download the new Swype Beta from Swype’s website.
Attention Nexus S 4G users: The moment you have been waiting for is finally hitting tomorrow. Android Police reported that the Nexus S 4G would receive the long-awaited Ice Cream Sandwich update tomorrow, according to a screenshot of Sprint’s internal systems (seen after the break). The over-the-air update should hit any time now, so get ready. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong in the process.
Handset maker Motorola Mobility, about to be acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, published today a list of devices eligible for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade (it previously explained why device updates are taking so long). The Xoom Family Edition tablet will get ICS in the second quarter. Unfortunately, owners of other devices will have to wait even longer, particularly the Photon 4G, Atrix 2, Atrix 4G and the non-Verizon Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1 that are slated to get ICS upgrades in the third quarter. Worse, many Verizon devices lack windows, including The Razr, Razr Maxx, Droid 4, Droid 3 and Droid Bionic.
This suggests Verizon certification is pushing back the planned ICS roll out for some of Motorola’s high-end phones sold in the United States. International version of the Razr is due for an ICS upgrade during the second quarter of this year. The company re-iterated that “Our engineers and designers are combing through the code and preparing it for you.”
With no information regarding sources, Eldar Murtazin took to Twitter to claim Ice Cream Sandwich will roll out to Samsung’s Galaxy S II on March 1. While he has made many predictions lately, it is not clear exactly how accurate he is. Time will only tell. At any rate, ICS should hit the Galaxy S II relatively soon. He also said ICS will roll out for the Galaxy Note and other Samsung devices from March to May, depending on model and carrier. We shall see!
Following its November promise, Taiwanese handset maker HTC today detailed through its Facebook page the devices that will get Ice Cream Sandwich in March. The first round of upgrades will roll out by the end of March for the Sensation, Sensation 4G, and Sensation XE. The Sensation XL will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich “soon thereafter,” the company noted. Additionally, other devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades “later this year,” including the Rezound, Vivid, Amaze 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G, Incredible S, Desire S, and Desire HD.
After posting a 26 percent profit drop for the holiday quarter, HTC warned it will scale back its 2012 roadmap to focus on flagship devices rather than spread itself thin developing, manufacturing and marketing dozens of short-lived phones. The company will make announcements at Mobile World Congress that runs Feb. 27 to March 1 in Barcelona, Spain. The rumor-mill thinks HTC will launch the Ville and Edge handsets at the show; the latter being billed the world’s first quad-core smartphone. The device should run Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip sporting four processing cores clocked at 1.5GHz.
CyanogenMod is one of the most popular custom tweaks for Android users. The team began work on CyanogenMod 9 after Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” was announced in late October last year. Today, CyanogenMod gave us a quick update on the progress of CyanogenMod 9, and some of the problems it is running into.
The team contributes “the many internal changes that require updated graphics drivers” as one of the major issues with rolling out the new software. There is not any official devkit surrounding graphic drivers, because it is device-to-device, so it has taken a little longer than the team hoped.
Currently, CyanogenMod 9 is available for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wi-Fi and T-Mobile versions), HP Touchpad, and Motorola Xoom. Next, CyanogenMod 9 will be available for Samsung handsets (Exynos chipset), and devices based on the Qualcomm MSM8660 and 7×30 chipsets after Samsung.
With CyanogenMod 9, the team continues to emphasize that it has completely started over with the new version —for a good reason:
We hope to achieve a good balance between tweakability and a great out-of-the-box experience. I want your phone or tablet to feel like it should have come with CM9.
Google updated its Android stats —as they do every two weeks— revealing how much of each version of Android is installed across devices. Yesterday’s update revealed that Android’s most recent offering, Ice Cream Sandwich, is now installed on 1 percent of devices, which is pretty meh if you ask me. Ice Cream Sandwich saw its first debut on the Galaxy Nexus, and over time, it has seen both official and unofficial installs across many other devices.
Not much else has changed from the last stats refresh. Android 2.3 Gingerbread still holds the most installs with almost 60 percent across every device, while Android 2.2 Froyo follows close behind. Let’s hope Google can deploy Android 4.0 to devices very quick, because we would not want any of you to miss out! You can see the graph below for the full breakdown.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nfgs4EUeTlk]
AnandTech does its typical thorough job of reviewing the Galaxy Nexus and, as you can see above, there is an in-depth analysis of the mobile landscape. The conclusion was not much different from ours, however. Spoiler:
As far as Ice Cream Sandwich is concerned, it really is Android perfected. Everything is smoother, faster and nearly all of our issues with the OS have been addressed. ICS brings Android into 2012 and gives Google a great platform to begin to introduce new features going forward. Android is now very close to UI performance parity with iOS, which eliminates a major tradeoff you had to make in the past. If you were hoping for ICS to be iOS with a Google logo on it, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However if you’re a fan of Android and just wished it were smoother and more polished, Ice Cream Sandwich is what you’ve been waiting for.
If you are after an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet you now have exactly two options: the ASUS Transformer Prime which got the update last week, or the Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi that just got ICS, according to Motorola.
Note that only the Wi-Fi version gets ICS. The 3G/LTE versions are coming shortly —we are assuming— due to radio issues.
It is still impressive of ASUS/embarrassing for Google/MOT that ASUS beat the Android tablet reference design to ICS. The press release is available below…
Acer America announced Jan. 5 that it would launch the 10.1-inch budget-friendly Iconia Tab A200, equipped with Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, in the United States for $329.99.
The titanium-gray A200 weighs 1.5 pounds, but the hefty tablet comes with a high-definition multitouch display at 1280-by-800 resolution. Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor and GeForce GPU power the device that features Acer’s Ring interface. With such a large screen, touted processing power and graphics processor, Acer is calling it an ideal gaming tablet.
“Made especially for multimedia enjoyment, the A200 packs hardware and apps for loads of fun,” said Acer in the announcing press release. “The Iconia Tab A200’s fast gaming experience is also supported by a six-axis motion sensing gyroscope, essential for high-precision gaming so actions and animations are more correctly performed.”
A faithful developer on the DroidForums has ported Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the Droid Bionic. The Ice Cream Sandwich port is based off Cyanogenmod 9 that was also used in the Ice Cream Sandwich port to the Kindle Fire and more. As of today all seems to be working well and dandy in this alpha, except 3G/4G data, camera, and stable USB mounting support. This might be worth checking out if you are daring, or in the mean time, you can wait for the official release by Motorola in early 2012. For those interested in installing, hit up the DroidForums for the full list of details.
