On updating its Platform Versions web page for Android on Tuesday, Google changed the manner in which the users of its various versions are counted. What has changed? According to Google, a special algorithm has been set to collect data from and count each device that visits the Google Play Store rather than devices that are checked-in to Google servers.
Due to the changes ushered in by Google, the statistics now have a different story to tell about the number of users of each version of Android. The number of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) users shot down by a massive 4 percentage points from 44.2 % to 39.8%, while the number of Android 4.1 and 4.2 ( Jellybean) users have now risen to 23.0% from 14.9 % and 1.6% to 2.0 % respectively. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) too has gained users and now stands at 29.3% from a previous 28.6%. This brings in a significant change to the Android world as new versions have started picking up pace and the once popular Gingerbread OS is finally being replaced.
Notwithstanding the new data collection method, overall, the rankings of the most used Android version remain somewhat the same. Gingerbread released in December 2010 is first, Ice Cream Sandwhich (October 2011) is second, the latest Jelly Beans, 4.1 and 4.2 (June 2012 and November 2012) are third, and Froyo (May 2010) is fourth. Google finally seems to be moving ahead with reducing its fragmentation issues. Jelly Bean has been especially successful in this regard, and its share has grown drastically since its launch, as compared to the slow adoption ICS received (though it has now picked up pace).
So what has this new change ushered in? Primarily, it skews data and helps segregate target users for developers who want to classify users actively use Google Play. However, before jumping to conclusions, one needs to note that despite all the positives this brings in a few negative aspects too viz. the fact that it tends to separate data too much at times, thus painting an inaccurate picture of the versions which are currently in use. Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether developers actually make use of this statistical device by developing version-specific applications so that specific groups of consumers may be targeted.
