14 DAY TRIAL // Google has released the Android Distribution Chart for August, and the numbers show that Android Marshmallow rose its share to 15.2% from 13.3% in the past month. Nearly 10 months after its debut in October, Marshmallow continues to grow slow but steadily, considering that Android 7.0 Nougat is just a few weeks away from unveiling.
Android Distribution Chart for August shows that Marshmallow's share reached 15.2% with a 1.9% bump compared to the previous month. Android Lollipop 5.0 and 5.1 amounted to 35.5%, with a 0.4% rise from the 35.1% share reported in July. However, Android 4.4 KitKat reported a 0.9% drop from 30.1% to 29.2%.
Moving on to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which saw a decline of 17.8% to 16.7%, while Ice Cream Sandwich dropped by 0.1%. Gingerbread also dropped by 0.2% to 1.7%, and Froyo is now present on 0.1% of all Android devices, thus maintaining its share. Speaking of Froyo, this Android OS version is expected to exit the monthly Android Distribution Chart as soon as Android 7.0 Nougat makes an appearance.
Only Marshmallow and Lollipop rose in this month's chart
The numbers do seem to indicate that Android versions prior to Lollipop 5.0 are on a declining rate, thus maintaining the trend that was set a month ago, when only Lollipop 5.0 and 5.1 and Marshmallow 6.0 rose in the index.
Google releases monthly charts on Android distribution in order to indicate the number of devices that are running a certain version of Android OS. This also shows the pace at which smartphones on the market get their updates to newer Android versions and which version is the most popular on the market.
Google is said to debut the new Android 7.0 Nougat version this month while some believe that it could arrive as soon as August 5. That remains to be seen, but HTC will also unveil the two new Nexus smartphones around the same period of time.