According to the Android Developer Dashboard, Android 8.0/8.1 Oreo devices now account for 19.2 percent of active Android devices, increasing by almost five percent since last month. Meanwhile, Android Nougat remains the reigning king with the highest API level of 29.3 percent.
Android 8.0 and 8.1 Oreo run on 19.2 percent of active Android devices, according to the Android Developer Dashboard. Since last month, Oreo’s share has increased by about 4.6 percent. But it’s Android 7.0 Nougat that remains the reigning king with 29 percent.
In contrast, Apple’s iOS 12, is now installed on 50 percent of iOS devices as of October 10. The new numbers come only a month after the company released its latest operating system.
Google launched the latest version of its operating system — Android 9.0 Pie — in August. The OS comes packed with a ton of new features ranging from new gesture navigations to a more informative lock screen. Google also included a feature called Digital Wellbeing which is meant to help limit your smartphone usage. It also shows you where you’ve spent the most time on your phone. Since the OS is still new, the percentage of Android P installations on devices have yet to be reflected in the Android Developer Dashboard.
In July, Android 8.0 Oreo doubled its usage, but in August the operating system saw a smaller percentage increase. Meanwhile, Android 7.0/7.1 Nougat has remained stagnant since July’s numbers. But with a 29.3 percent API level, it’s still currently the most used Android operating system.
Although Nougat’s 29 percent market share may sound like a small percentage, it accounts for a lot of phones, especially considering there have been more than 1.4 billion Android devices activated since September 2015. But it nevertheless highlights one of Android’s biggest problems: Fragmentation. Google issues monthly security updates and rolls out version updates to all of its supported Pixel, Nexus, and Android One devices, but these are not always released in a timely manner by manufacturers and carriers for other devices.
It’s important to keep in mind, though, that Google’s survey doesn’t account for the millions of Android smartphones in China, as the search giant only collects data from devices that access the Google Play Store, which is not available in China.
*The data above is from Google. It was collected during a seven-day period ending on September 28,2018. Any versions with less than 0.1 percent distribution are not shown.
Android’s notoriously bad fragmentation was the catalyst for Project Treble, a system-level change in Android Oreo that bypasses much of the testing currently required by manufacturers, chipmakers, and carriers. But it isn’t backward-compatible — older Android devices will remain stuck on the old upgrade cycle.
We will continue to update this post as Google updates its Android distribution figures.
Updated on October 24,2018: Added the latest Android distribution statistics.
