Google's two major updates, Jellybean and KitKat, collectively account for 80 percent of Android smartphones.
Google's latest Android updates, Jellybean and Kitkat, are finally picking up pace. Based on the data collected by Google during a seven day period ending November 3, Jellybean and KitKat collectively cover 80 percent of smartphones running Google's dominant OS. KitKat is still trailing behind Jellybean at 30.2 percent vs. 50.9 percent.
Since June KitKat has seen a steady growth. It means the smartphone manufacturers and carriers are finally pushing the latest OS to compatible smartphones, but it still leaves a large number of smartphones out of its reach. The result, Jellybean leading the market.
Other Android versions continue to exist, including the once-dominant Gingerbread, which now stands at 9.8 percent, Ice Cream Sandwich at 8.5 percent and Froyo at less than one percent.
The new data shows a struggling growth for KitKat, which was launched in October last year. In January, KitKat adoption was seen only on 1.4 percent of the devices and it rose to 13.6 percent as of June. In recent months, KitKat adoption witnessed a notable spike crossing the 20 percent mark in August.
Compared to Apple's iOS adoption, Android roll-outs are sluggish. Within just 20 days of launching Apple's iOS 8 software, 46 percent of iPhone and iPad users upgraded to the latest software. Despite this rate, Apple was deemed slow in iOS 8 adoption because iOS 7 powered nearly 70 percent of Apple devices around the same time last year.
It remains to be seen how KitKat grows further and at what pace, considering the roll-out of Android 5.0 Lollipop began Monday. The demand for Lollipop appears to be more as smartphone vendors such as HTC have already mapped out the OS roll-out.
