Fragmandroid: Google’s Android 4.4 ‘KitKat’ hits 13% of Android devices
“The latest installment of Google’s Developers Dashboard revealed that Android 4.4 KitKat was spotted on 13.6 percent of all the devices that visited the Google Play store during the seven-day period ending Wednesday,” Lance Whitney reports for CNET.
“That’s a solid increase over the 8.5 percent recorded just a month ago, helping KitKat inch past Ice Cream Sandwich this month with its 12.3 percent share,” Whitney reports. “Jelly Bean is still tops with 58.4 percent of all devices, followed by Gingerbread with 14.9 percent.”
“Android remains a highly fragmented platform with every major and minor version from Froyo 2.2 to KitKat 4.4 still found on various devices. Fragmentation poses a problem not just for users but for developers who have to contend with different supported screen sizes, hardware capabilities, and other factors when designing their Android apps,” Whitney reports. “On Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Tim Cook took a potshot at Android’s fragmentation with a slide showing KitKat at a then 9 percent install base compared with iOS 7’s 89 percent. Cook does make a valid point.”
MacDailyNews Take: In other words, Android’s current version (KitKat) isn’t even past Gingerbread, which was released on February 9, 2011, well over 3 years ago. Have fun, Android developers and enjoy your lowest common denominator apps, Android settlers!
Android fragmentation visualized. (Source: OpenSignal – July 2013)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dialtone” for the heads up.]
