Jelly Bean has become the most popular flavor of Android, overtaking Gingerbread which has held this position since November 2011.

Back in April, Google changed the basis on which it measures Android version use and now collects it fortnightly platform version statistics from visits to Google Play in order to reflect "users who are most engaged" in the Android ecosystem. This led to an immediate jump in the percentage of Jelly Bean users with the decrease being shared by Froyo and Gingerbread. But even so Gingerbread had 46% share compared to Jelly Bean's 25%.

Three months on, the latest figures show Jelly Bean at 38% and Gingerbread at 34%:

Comparing this table to the one we presented in April

Jelly Bean's increased share, which is up 13% has come almost equally from Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich both of which have seen their share fall by around 6%.

Although it is positive news that the most recent version of Android is at the top in the popularity stakes, the reverse of the coin is that 60% are still on older versions, meaning that Android is still suffering from fragmentation:

Also Jelly Bean has been with us over twelve months so its progress to the top slot was slower than Gingerbread's.

And where is Jelly Bean's successor, Key Lime Pie?

We were expecting some hint of when to expect it, or at the least a date for the minor JellyBean update, Android 4.3, at Google I/O but Google was worryingly silent. And while there are rumors, notably from TechRadar  on the web that Android 5 (Key Lime Pie) is going to launch in October.

So perhaps Jelly Bean still has time to add to its share of the Android pie.

More Information

Android Platform Versions

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