90 per cent of all Android owners now using Eclair 2.1 or above
Fragmentation? What fragmentation?
Google has released its regular Android pie-chart showing the current state of Android fragmentation - and it’s looking fairly peachy if you’re on Froyo or Eclair.
According to the statistics, Froyo (2.2) now makes up over 61 per cent of all currently running Android handsets, with Eclair (2.1) hoovering up the majority of the rest with 29 per cent total users of the platform.
Gingerbread and Honeycomb - the two latest versions - don’t really have a presence as yet, thanks to only running on a handful of released devices, while Cupcake and Donut owners (otherwise known as those on a 24-month contract from 2008 and 2009) now represent just 7.8 per cent of the Android community.
The statistics are a useful way for developers to gauge what versions of the mobile platform to create applications and games for, especially as the older iterations of Android lack certain performance enhancing features such as the JIT compiler.
What this effectively means for Android users, though, is that you’re not likely to see support for the the most popular versions drying up in the near future. So those still on Eclair can sigh with relief, while those on Donut should seriously start looking to upgrade soon.
