Android 2.1+ On Majority Of Android SmartphonesAndroid 2.1+ On Majority Of Android Smartphones

This month's report shows a 6% increase in the number of devices running Froyo or Eclair. In early November, the combined total was 77% (36.2% for Froyo, 40.8% for Eclair). Now, 43.4% of Android users have the latest Froyo operating system installed on their device, with a close 39.6% running 2.1 Eclair.

The presence of Android 1.5 Cupcake and 1.6 Donut are at their lowest levels. The percentage of handsets still running Cupcake has dropped from 7.9% to 6.4%, and the percentage of handsets still running Donut has dropped from 15% to 10.6%. Only 17% of all Android users are still stuck on this outdated platform software.

This new fragmentation landscape hasn't shifted as much as expected. Samsung had previously noted that Android 2.2 would be made available to its more-than 5 million Galaxy S line of Android devices. That didn't happen. The update has been pushed back several times. Once those devices move to Android 2.2, there will be a significant change in the Android 2.2 and Android 2.1 percentages.

Surprisingly, there's been no word from Google about Android 2.3 Gingerbread, except that it will arrive very soon. Speaking at an event in late November, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that Android 2.3 Gingerbread would make its debut "in weeks." We still haven't seen hide nor hair of it.

As with Android 2.2 when it debuted in May, once Android 2.3 becomes available, it will only trickle out to a small percentage to start.

Google provides these numbers every two weeks so developers may make more effective use of their time updating and developing for the various versions of Android.