The numbers are a little hard to compare with Android 11, but it’s still progressing
Fragmentation on Android has always been a problem. With so many devices from so many phone makers and keeping updates on those phone makers’ shoulders, it’s almost inevitable. This has improved in recent years, but even today it is not uncommon to see Android phones running any version from 12 to 8. This is not true for iPhones as the majority of ‘am running iOS 15. Still, Android is running its own race, and according to the latest numbers, Android 12 is making decent progress.
We know this because Google released new Android platform distribution numbers this week (via 9to5Google). This iteration of the distribution report only started last November and has been updated every 3 months. Previously, Google provided numbers on a monthly basis to a dashboard on the Android Developers website before dropping the ball in 2018, effectively annually. Of course, the numbers themselves gave Apple plenty of room to bully Google.
In this edition, Android 12 made its first appearance on the chart, calling present on 13.5% of all devices.
By contrast, Android 11 currently tops the charts with 27% of phones, while Android 10 trails just behind at 18.8%. Nine months ago, Android 11 was at a standstill with 10 last year in terms of market share. Android 11 finally took over as the mainline release in May, but the usage numbers aren’t too different.
| Android platform version | API level | Disparate share |
| Android 4.1 Jelly Bean | 16 | 0.1% |
| Android 4.2 Jelly Bean | 17 | 0.2% |
| Android 4.3 Jelly Bean | 18 | <0.1% |
| Android 4.4 Kit Kat | 19 | 0.9% |
| Android 5.0 lollipop | 21 | 0.4% |
| Android 5.1 lollipop | 22 | 2.2% |
| Android 6.0 Marshmallow | 23 | 3.5% |
| Android 7.0 Nougat | 24 | 2.3% |
| Android 7.1 Nougat | 25 | 2.2% |
| Android 8.0 Oreo | 26 | 3.0% |
| Android 8.1 Oreo | 27 | 7.9% |
| Android Pie 9 | 28 | 14.5% |
| Android 10Q | 29 | 18.8% |
| Android 11R | 30 | 27.0% |
| Android 12S | 31 | 13.5% |
Android 12’s market share seems to be growing a bit slower than Android 11’s, but it’s still an improvement from where it was a few years ago, because more and more people usually get new releases faster. Again, Android 4.x has a total of 1.2% these days. KitKat recently turned 9 and Jelly Bean turned 10.
