It may have taken longer than most expected but Android 5.0 Lollipop (now more than 3 months old) has finally landed on the latest edition of Google’s Android Platform Versions report. With updates starting to land on devices other than the Nexus line, the latest version of Android is finally picking up a bit of steam. From nowhere last month, Lollipop now accounts for 1.6% of Android devices accessing Google Play using the new Google Play Store app, which supports Android 2.2 and above.
With updates set to gain more momentum in 2015, we can expect KitKat to quickly make some gains on the Android Platform Versions report but older versions are not going anywhere if the past is any indication.
The previous version, Android 4.4 KitKat, now over a year old, saw its adoption jump up 0.6% to 39.7%. Despite steady gains, it still trails Android Jelly Bean (4.1.x to 4.3) which dropped slightly again but still stands at 44.5%. Older versions refuse to go away without a fight and still account for a sizeable 14.2% share of Android versions.
A quick glance on the Apple side shows that iOS 8 adoption has also slowed. It now accounts for 69%, up a single percent from numbers in early January. It appears that a sizeable group of Apple users are not quite ready to take the plunge and upgrade their devices from iOS 7.
Apple and Google regularly publish their platform version reports to help developers better understand what OS versions are most commonly used. It also gives us a glimpse at the state of the Android and iOS universes at a specific point in time.
Sources : Android Developers // Apple Developer