14 DAY TRIAL // It's been almost two months since Google released Android 6.0 Marshmallow and only a few handset makers managed to provide roadmaps for their software update release.
Aside from the Nexus and Android One devices, there aren't too many handsets that have been upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, although we do have a few smartphones that were launched with the new version of the OS right out of the box (HTC One A9, Huawei Mate 8).
Just like every other month, Google released an interesting statistics that shows Android distribution numbers. As expected, Marshmallow didn't improve its market share by much.
Last month we reported that Android 6.0 Marshmallow was installed on 0.1% of devices that visited Google Play Store during a 7-day period. The December distribution numbers show a slight improvement for Marshmallow, but not that impressive, as the new OS now stands at 0.5% market share.
KitKat still dominates Android market share
Android Lollipop improved its market share a little bit, probably because many OEMs stopped launching KitKat devices. Android 5.0 and 5.1 accounted in December for 29.5% market share, up 3.9% from last month.
Unfortunately, Android market share is still dominated by Android KitKat with 36.6%, followed by Lollipop with 29.5% and Android Jelly Bean that now accounts for 26.9% market share.
Gingerbread dropped to 3.4% while Android Ice Cream Sandwich is at 2.9%. Last but not least, Android 2.2 Froyo is still present in Google's statistics with 0.2% market share.
According to Google, the data presented is gathered from the new Google Play store application, which supports Android 2.2 and above, so devices running older versions are not included.
That being said, we expect the situation to improve by a lot beginning next year when many handset makers promised to deliver Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates for some of its most popular smartphones.