14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, the Android 2.1 operating system has started to lose ground in front of the newer, more appealing Android 2.2 platform version, at least this is what the latest Android distribution charts show.
A few weeks ago, the Android 2.1 OS flavor was present on more than 60 percent of all Android-based devices on the market, but the percentage dropped sharply.
The latest data collected by the Android Developers unveiled that, during the past two weeks, the Android 2.1 OS was present on only 41.7 percent of the active devices out there.
The Android 2.2 platform version has seen some impressive growth lately, with a number of more than 28.7 percent of active handsets running under it, in comparison with only 4.5 percent of them using the solution in early August.
Older versions of Android, including the Android 1.6 and 1.5 platforms, have been losing even more ground than before, the former reaching 17.5 percent of devices, down from 20.3 percent a month ago, while the latter currently powers 12 percent of them, down from 15.3 percent on August 2nd.
The bottom line is that, while three operating system versions have been losing share on Android distribution charts, the fourth is rising fast, namely Android 2.2, now close to reaching one third of all Android devices on the market.
Undoubtedly, its growth would continue over the following months too, as more new smartphones and non-phone devices powered by it would be brought to the market, while older Android 2.1-based handsets receive software updates to Froyo.
According to the Android Developers, the data above was collected during the two weeks ending September 1st, which means that the actual platform distribution number might be different as we speak.
The charts show the relative number of active phones based on one or another flavor of the Android operating system, and are mainly aimed at offering app builders a general idea on which platform version they would need to focus the most.
