Marshmallow now powers 0.7% of all Android devices, KitKat still king of the hill

posted by Peter K. / Jan 05, 2016, 4:18 PM

Marshmallow now powers 0.7% of all Android devices, KitKat still king of the hill

Marshmallow might be the newest flavor of Android, but it is still one of the rarest versions of the OS. According to the newest data from the Android distribution dashboard, which was collected during a 7-day period ending on January 4, Marshmallow can be found on merely 0.7% of all eligible Android devices.

It rather important to mention that the new version of Google's mobile platform has seen a 0.2% increase compared with the previous month, but in spite of this, it's still a little bit sad to see it so behind in terms of adoption.

KitKat still reigns supreme with 36.1%, despite that it suffered a minor decline of 0.5% in comparison with December 2015, when it had a distribution rate of 36.6% written next to its name. It is followed closely by Android 5.x Lollipop, which is clearly on the rise and is yet to peak.

In the meantime, most previous Android versions, like Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Gingerbread are declining. All apart from Froyo - the archaic Android version is still holding strong to its 0.2% piece of the pie and doesn't seem to give up its spot.

Check out the dynamics of the Android distribution stats in the table right below.

Version	Codename	Distribution in December 2015	Distribution in January 2016
2.20	Froyo	0.20%	0.20% -
2.3.3 - 2.3.7	Gingerbread	3.40%	3.00% ▼
4.0.3 - 4.0.4	Ice Cream Sandwich	2.90%	2.70% ▼
4.1.x	Jelly Bean	10.00%	9.00% ▼
4.2.x		13.00%	12.20% ▼
4.30		3.90%	3.50% ▼
4.40	KitKat	37.00%	36.10% ▼
5.00	Lollipop	16.30%	16.90% ▲
5.10	Lollipop	13.20%	15.70% ▲
6.00	Marshmallow	0.50%	0.70% ▲

We don't mean to be stingy and mean, but we feel that a comparison with iOS is due here. Apple's stats for January 2016 are yet to be released, but the latest piece of data from mid-December 2015 indicates that the newest version of iOS, iOS 9, was present on 71% of all eligible iOS devices; a month earlier, in November, it was making the rounds on exactly 70% of all iOS devices.

These stark discrepancies can be attributed to the different approaches that the two most popular operating systems employ - one is deeply fragmented, while the other one is tightly-controlled. Still, it hurts to see the newest version of the leading mobile platform so poorly adopted.

Battle of the platforms - distribution stats

source: Android Developers, Apple via VentureBeat

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21 Comments

1. XperiaFanZone

Posts: 2277; Member since: Sep 21, 2012

It should be illegal for OEMs to release phones without the latest version of any OSs. Google is being too friendly to OEMs and developers. Not saying they should be assholes to them like *that* OEM, but limit their decisions to an extent.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 4:20 PM 4

4. DellDeep

Posts: 72; Member since: Nov 24, 2015

That's just stupid. How about allow the consumer to decide if the existing OS on the phone they are buying is worth it or not.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 4:50 PM 5

9. Diezparda

Posts: 941; Member since: Oct 23, 2013

Illegal, that'll be too much... What important is more stable OS not the latest.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:48 PM 2

6. JunitoNH

Posts: 1946; Member since: Feb 15, 2012

You are absolutely correct, my friend just bought a brand new Samsung device, and it came with Kit Kat OS. Imagine buying any other device, and getting an updated OS from the hop.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:24 PM 0

13. Norris

Posts: 121; Member since: Jun 26, 2015

lol.Which device did your friend bought? Now, even the J series comes with 5.1.1

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 11:09 PM 0

15. joey_sfb

Posts: 6794; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Good to have the latest Android version, however since app run the same from Ice Cream Sandwich onwards, its really a nice to have thing.

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 2:13 AM 0

19. elitewolverine

Posts: 5192; Member since: Oct 28, 2013

Not all apps, some apps even require 5.x and above, the one off the top of my head was a camera app.

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 9:39 AM 0

2. cripton805

Posts: 1485; Member since: Mar 18, 2012

Here waiting for 5.1 on my S5.... Just want bugs to ve fixed.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 4:34 PM 1

7. JunitoNH

Good luck with your lottery ticket.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:26 PM 1

3. oozz009

Posts: 520; Member since: Jun 22, 2015

That's just sad.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 4:44 PM 0

5. LittleGaGaKiller

Posts: 290; Member since: Jan 19, 2015

LMAO !!!!!!!!!!!

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:07 PM 0

8. andro.

Posts: 1999; Member since: Sep 16, 2011

The thing is those ios figures would be a lot different if every year older apple handsets weren't so often half crippled by the latest ios updates,using forcing apple users to upgrade their handsets to the latest apple shiny device and hence the latest ios firmware model. Take ios 9 and 9.01 etc afterwards which launched with the iphone 6s for instance which bricked so many iphone 5s handsets,the very same iphone 5s customers who conveniently were due upgrades a the end of a two year contract giving them the push to go out and buy the latest apple handsets.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:35 PM 0

10. Lycan155

Posts: 254; Member since: Nov 24, 2013

Just pathetic

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 5:49 PM 0

11. jeroome86

Posts: 2314; Member since: Apr 12, 2012

Guess people being cautious after lolliflop. Just got that crap off my Nexus 7 and runs so much better now. Flashed CM11 on it and now can actually use my tablet now. Doesn't look like my Note 3 will get Marshmallow unless I want to do the same.

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 6:12 PM 0

12. buccob

Posts: 2963; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

It's funny how Apple's chart only shows iOS biggest numbers "iOS 7, iOS 8, iOS 9" and it doesn't show 9.0.1, 9.0.2, 9.1, 9.2 etc.... Android should be shown split the same way even if certain versions were major upgrades inside the same desserts. The corrected chart should be as follows: Earlier Versions --------- 5.9% Jelly Bean --------------- 24.7% KitKat --------------------- 36.1% Lollipop ------------------ 32.6% Marshmallows ----------- 0.7% Now fragmentation doesn't look as bad but this doesn't change the fact that Marshmallows has been incredibly slow to adopt, but at least it is a way to show data more Fair

posted on Jan 05, 2016, 7:31 PM 1

16. MrElectrifyer

Posts: 3960; Member since: Oct 21, 2014

That's the way Google presents the data on their website, same goes for Apple... http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 5:06 AM 0

18. buccob

That's my point, I am not blaming PhoneArena here... but Apple for being Misleading

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 8:18 AM 0

20. elitewolverine

Why? if you are able to get 9.0, then you get 9.2. Apple has delivered the update, not apple's fault a consumer hasn't upgraded. Opposite in android land. A device on 5.0.1, may not get 5.1.1, even though 5.1.1 is on their newer phone. That is fragmentation, and yes there is a difference.

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 9:49 AM 0

14. My1cent

Posts: 370; Member since: Jan 30, 2014

It's ALSO rather important to mention the adoption rate for all of Nexus devices in its comparison. but in spite of doing so, it's still a little bit sad to see the incompleted comparison.

posted on Jan 06, 2016, 2:09 AM 0

17. qwertsun

Posts: 42; Member since: Dec 02, 2015

Instead of criticising Andriod for the abysmal amount of 6.0 OS, take it in a different light that Andriod works so well on so many different OS versions across so many devices.