Google’s newest mobile OS, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, is now running on more than 10 percent of Android devices.
The milestone comes eight months after Google released Marshmallow, with growth in recent months spurred by most new devices shipping with the version of Android.
Marshmallow was the fastest-growing version of Android in terms of adoption, increasing 2.6 percentage points since May, while most other versions were flat or declined by less than one percent. Marshmallow’s share has more than doubled since April when it was on just 4.6 percent of devices.
However, there are still fewer Marshmallow devices connecting to Google Play today than devices running the four generations old Jelly Bean, which has an 18.9 percent share.
By contrast, Apple iOS 9, which was released 10 months ago, is now on 84 percent of all iPhones and iPads.
Based on this month’s growth for Marshmallow, the current OS could eclipse Jelly Bean to become the third most adopted version by October, roughly around the time Google is scheduled to release Android N to the public.
The numbers come from Google’s Platform Versions data, which are gathered from the Google Play Store app in the seven-day period ending on June 6.
The only other version of Android that grew this month was Android 5.1 Lollipop, which now has a 20 percent share, up from 19.4 percent.
Android 5.0 Lollipop dipped slightly to 15.4 percent. Together, they account for 35.4 percent of all installations. Android 4.4 KitKat meanwhile declined by less than one percent to 31.6 percent.
Like KitKat, all older versions of Android declined by less than one percentage point over the month. Android 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 JellyBean have an 18.9 percent share, while Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Gingerbread and Froyo each have a share of two percent or less.
Source: ZDNet
