Jelly Bean Crosses 50% Android Market-share for the First Time

Remember the time when Gingerbread got out and Android phones suddenly started to sell like hot cakes? That was the time when Gigantic Apple and Nokia had finally got a serious competitor but the side-effect was that the large number of dumb phones during that time, which couldn’t get updated to newer Android versions and hence, the Gingerbread marketshare soared.

That has finally changed now. In October, for the first time ever, Jelly Bean crossed 50% marketshare of all Android devices out there. The 52.1% marketshare it holds is almost twice the share which Gingerbread is currently holding.

The good news is that it has finally started to drop at a substantial pace, quite unlike its stubborn nature.

Ice Cream Sandwich also dropped to just 19.8% now.

Start of another problem?

With KitKat, Google has finally decided that fragmentation needs to go away and that is why the latest version can run on phones with as low as 512 MB RAM but it won’t be going anywhere suddenly.

Mind you, that Jelly Bean is itself outdated now and if Google’s partners still carry on with their habits of not updating the operating system of their devices, it might turn out to be an even bigger issue than Gingerbread, given the massive spread of the phones running it.

Android version marketshare


  • As per reports, most of the manufacturers are already jumping on the KITKAT bandwagon. HTC for one example says, all variants will have KK 4.4 within 90 days or sooner. International versions are getting the update within 2 weeks. The real problem will still be the older phones being iterated and used. The Froyo and Gingerbread segment will only go away when these phones die. Don’t think any OEM will bother updating them.

    • The older phones won’t be updated.
      The real reason why google went for 512mb of ram is for future phones so that companies like Qmobile and also other companies like Samsung even the low end future models come with kitkat hence market share will increase in third world countries.(Notice how the head of Android said to the “Next 1 Billion”
      Microsoft is currently targeting them with phones like the lumia 520 or other low spec’d lumias now google will have phones with low specs with google services on them

      • I don’t think the OS plays a part in terms of market share. People buying low end handsets are aware of the limitations their phones come with. I do not expect those limitation to go away with an upgrade in OS. Killing fragmentation will just make it easier for developers and Google to move all devices to next iterations of apps and OS

        • Fragmentation for developers incase you didn’t know.

          Play Services has system-level powers, but it’s updatable. It’s part of the Google apps package, so it’s not open source. OEMs are not allowed to modify it, making it completely under Google’s control. Play Services basically acts as a shim between the normal apps and the installed Android OS. Right now Play Services handles the Google Maps API, Google Account syncing, remote wipe, push messages, the Play Games back end, and many other duties and it now covers 98% of android. So the software fragmentation problem is mostly solved its the hardware fragmentation remains and thats okay

          As far as market share I’m talking Android market share.
          People buying low end handsets buy it cause they can’t mostly afford the high end ones but what if their handsets can now do most of the stuff the high end ones can? say they get a nokia dumbphone worth 8k would they rather now get a samsung or whatever maker phone worth 9-12k with kitkat? Reason things like Skype,whatsapp,viber and better access to the internet etc

          Let me put it into perspective Africa Blackberry 22% market share Indonesia BB market share 47% these are markets to be won. Iphone won’t take them because mostly you get cheap BB’s or free even with carriers and BB6 or 7 aren’t nowhere near android or windows phone 8 or ios. who will win the market share? cheap hardware and more functionality add google services to the equation you see it all working out.

          Btw kitkat solves this problem that your low end cell phone won’t be very slow when you run apps like skype and another app in the background etc.

  • anyone how can tell me the procedure… I want to updgrde 2.3 Android on Galaxy S2 to Jelly bean without losing any data from phone ???

    • Install Titanium Backup!!
      Backup All The Data On External Memory Copy It On PC (Just InCase)
      Upgrade Your Phone Install Titanium Backup Again From Play Store, Tell It The Location Of Backup Then Restore!!
      You Need To Root Your Device First!!
      Aint No FanDroid Here Gonna Tell You That..
      Proud iOS User :)


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