Half Of All Android Phones Now Running 2.1Half Of All Android Phones Now Running 2.1

Google recently published information about Android's current level of fragmentation. There's good news. The number of devices running Android 2.1 has improved to exactly 50%. That's up significantly from last month's number, which was 37.2%. Android 2.1 is the most current version of Android available. Android 2.2 Froyo, announced in May, has not yet been distributed to end users in significant numbers.

How does the rest of the Android pie shape up? Last month, an even 28% were still using Android 1.6 and 34.1% were still stuck with Android 1.5. Those numbers have improved a little bit. Android 1.6 now makes up 25% of all Android handsets, and Android 1.5 makes up 24.6%. The tiniest fractions of users are stuck on 2.0 or 2.0.1.

Google said it came by these numbers by evaluating what handsets visited the Android Market during a 14-day period. It isn't the best metric I've ever heard, but apparently it's as good as Google's got for measuring the breakdown of Android versions.

It would be great to see the number of Android 1.6 and 1.5 users dwindle further. There are a number of devices, such as the Samsung Behold II, which won't be updated beyond Android 1.6. Companies such as HTC and Motorola have promised that a number of their handsets will be updated at least to Android 2.0, but they haven't said when.

Once Android 2.2 devices start hitting the market, which should be within a few short weeks, expect these numbers to change. The Verizon/Motorola announcement set for next week is sure to be about a new Droid running Android 2.2, and we know Google is going to update all the Nexus One handsets to Android 2.2 in the very near future.