Ice Cream Sandwich now on 16% of Android phones

By Zack Whittaker | August 3, 2012 | 5

Google

Google continues to see solid growth in the uptake of Ice Cream Sandwich, but Android 4.0 is still a long way off trouncing Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

(Credit: Samsung)

Ice Cream Sandwich's share of the Android market continues to grow rapidly, with the operating system now present on nearly 16 per cent of all Android phones.

Ice Cream Sandwich has more than doubled its distribution share over the space of a single month — variants of Android 4.0 have risen from a combined total of 7.1 per cent to 15.9 per cent, according to figures from Google.

Gingerbread, Android version 2.3 — first released in December 2010 — remains the most popular Android version to date with more than 60 per cent of the Android market.

The statistics show that Ice Cream Sandwich's successor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, is yet to make much headway. Announced at Google I/O in June, the Jelly Bean version of the mobile OS is now skirting the 1 per cent mark.

Any boost to Jelly Bean's rankings will come from hardware partners dishing out upgrades to existing users; while Samsung and HTC are rolling it out to some devices, Motorola, LG and Sony have yet to announce Jelly Bean updates.

The data was collected from Android devices that access Google Play, the Android app store formerly known as the Android Market, during the two-week period ending 1 August.

Latest Google Play access statistics.
(Credit: Google)

Via CNET.com

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roshie posted a comment 10 months ago
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Australia

The problem is most Android users are unaware that their phone is upgradeable to ICS 4.0 till someone knowledgable tells them there is a software update.

Dunners posted a reply 10 months ago
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Australia

So True.
I don't know how many SGS 2 owners i've spoken to that are still running GB

Chandler posted a reply 10 months ago
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Australia

Manual updates usually require you to root your phone and install a custom ROM however, and a lot of Android users aren't that technical. Most Androids use OTA updates, and once an (official) update is available you will usually get a notification to that effect (I did for Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus).

As always, the hold-up is with carriers and OEM's adding their touches (and bloatware...) to the update before releasing it - if you forget that it is often in their best interest to NOT update the OS to force you onto a newer product... OEM's at least make no money (AFAIK) out of updating software for their older products.

Will1505 posted a reply 10 months ago
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Most devices you can turn off the option to be notified, its a way to save power but i don't think you can do the same with nexus devices.

Some people just can't handle that they won't have their phone for the 30 minutes it take to do the update

Im Batman posted a reply 10 months ago
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Australia

Manual updates can be for official updates... the updates to my ole desire were all manual, download the RUU and load it on. There were normally an OTA pushed out for the updates, but i wasn't prepared to wait a few more days : )
The OTA are much better as they are an "add-on" update where all your setup and data is maintained, as opposed to the manual full system image where you go back to square one.

The OEMs don't get any more money from the updates, its just their "rep" that they are trying to protect... thus securing future customers.