14 DAY TRIAL // It's a common fact that there are a wide range of different versions of Google's Android mobile operating system available into the wild, but it seems that their use is converging towards the dominance of only one flavor of the platform. As it turns out, the Android crown was taken by Android 2.1 a while ago, and this flavor of the operating system is continuously increasing its share in the Android segment.
According to data collected by Android Developers during the two weeks ended August 2nd, the Android 2.1 version of the OS is currently present on no less than 59.7 percent of all active devices on the market. The figure is being delivered in an attempt to offer application builders an overview of the platform's usages around the world, so that they can better target their mobile software solutions.
Next on the list comes the Android 1.6 version of the operating system, which accounts for 20.3 percent of the active devices on the market, while the third place goes to Android 1.5, with only 15.3 percent share. The newly released Android 2.2 flavor is also present in the graph, though it is currently used on only 4.5 percent of all active Android-based devices out there.
However, considering the fact that mobile phone manufacturers and wireless carriers around the world already started to deploy the Android 2.2 software solution for some of their devices, chances are that this Android version would soon show increased usage, though it remains to be seen whether Android 2.1 would be the one to lose market share or not.
More info on the distribution of the various versions of the Android operating system can be found on this page over at the Android Developers. According to the info, other (obsolete) versions of the OS are currently present on 0.2 percent of devices. In case there are some who do not know what these versions refer to, we should mention the Android 2.0 and 2.0.1 flavors, which were spotted last year on Motorola's DROID device.
