Android Rules Smartphones, But Which Version?

Nerval's Lobster writes "Google Android's dominance of the smartphone space has been reinforced by a new IDC study that places its market-share at 68.3 percent, well ahead of iOS at 18.8 percent. But which version of Android is most preferred by users? A new set of graphs on the Android Developers Website offers the answer to that question: 'Gingerbread,' or Android versions 2.3 through 2.3.7, dominates with 50.8 percent of the Android pie. 'Ice Cream Sandwich,' or versions 4.0.3 through 4.0.4, is second with 27.5 percent, with the latest 'Jelly Bean' build at 6.7 percent. As demonstrated by that graph on the Android Developers Website, there are a lot of devices running a lot of different versions of Android out there in the ecosystem, all with different capabilities. In turn, that could make it difficult for Google to deliver 'the latest and greatest' to any customer that wants it, and potentially irritates those customers who buy a smartphone (particularly a high-end one) expecting regular upgrades." Here's how Slashdot readers using Android break down: 31.0% Jelly Bean, 31.5% Ice Cream Sandwich, 0.7% Honeycomb, 22.8% Gingerbread, 4.3% Froyo, 1.1% Eclair, 0.05% Donut, 0.02% Cupcake, 8.5% unknown. Looks like you folks are ahead of the curve. iOS breaks down like this: 67% iOS 6, 28.6% iOS 5, 3.2% iOS 4, 0.5% iOS 3, 0.7% unknown. (These numbers include more than just phones, of course.) Overall, our iOS traffic (8.74%) is higher than our Android traffic (6.75%). Windows Phone and BlackBerry both clock in at about 0.2%.

Comments

Preference

[Anonymous Coward]

"But which version of Android is most preferred by users?"
I don't think it's about which version users prefer but rather what version they are stuck with.

Re:Preference

[Githaron]

"But which version of Android is most preferred by users?"

The newest.

Re:Preference

[lister king of smeg]

"But which version of Android is most preferred by users?".

CyanogenMod

Re:Preference

[icebike]

I have to give credit to Apple that even users of the positively ancient iPhone 3GS still get first tier support. You would be hard pressed to find an Android phone from that era with official support for Jelly Bean. Maybe one of the Nexus phones?

Um, no, that's not entirely true.

Ask anyone who has installed IOS5 or IOS6 on an old iPhone 3G, or even a 3Gs. Its horrible.

Large portions of new and marvelous best-thing-ever features are just not present on the old phones, (even those features that do not technically require new hardware elements, or are so slow as to be unusable. Battery life goes to hell, even with after Apple attempts to fix it. Most people who do this immediately hop on the net looking for a way to revert, the rest give up and run out to buy the latest iPhone (which was the plan all along). There is a lot of advice to simply not upgrade old phones.

Even iPhone 4 users are wary about updating to IOS6.

If anything the fact that you can install IOS6 on older devices speaks only to how little the iPhone has really progressed over time.

Re:Preference

[tlhIngan]

It is impossible to do what we have been doing with PCs.

To be more correct, the PC is really just ONE platform, while ARM SoCs form many.

E.g., in a PC, the memory will ALWAYS be in the same location, the BIOS will ALWAYS be in the same location as well. Once you have those two basics out of the way, it's trivial to figure out where stuff like video adapters are (which happen to be in the same spot for a basic console, as well). PCI enumeration and assignment (which relies on the PCI bridge being in the same spot, as well as stuff like keyboard controllers and all that having the same I/O map).

When stuff's in the same location, it's easy.

With ARM, that's like everyone agreeing to use say, Samsung SoC's for the next 30 years and making sure Samsung's SoCs remain backwards compatible w.r.t. memory maps.

After all, you can still boot DOS on a modern PC these days, If the memory map changed, or even if the memory is not in the same spot as it was before, that won't work as the link addresses are all wrong.

Linux uses device trees for ARM, which is a hack to try to get the same thing on ARM SoCs, but the problem there is things like DMA controllers aren't the same, memory controllers vary, etc. And of course, where one chip can have memory starting at 0x80000000, others can have it at 0x40000000, or 0xC0000000...

Re:Preference

[ozmanjusri]

I've been dithering on buying a tablet, and upgradability is one of the biggest sticking points.

Then buy an Asus or a Nexus.

Vote with your wallet - show those lagging vendors who's boss.

Which version is preferred?

[stevez67]

That should read "which Android version is the one their device will run or has been allowed to upgrade to." It's not like anyone with an android phone running Froyo can arbitrarily decide to upgrade to Jelly Bean.

Unanswerable question

[Anonymous Coward]

Which version of Android is most preferred by users?

How would anyone know? The decision is made by the service provider, not the user.

A little surprised

[Cinder6]

Yada yada, "preference" is the wrong word here. Anyway...

I know there are many articles saying that iOS has more overall web usage, but I'm still surprised to see that it's even the case with a demographic like Slashdot. Of course, it doesn't mean there are more iOS Slashdot users, but it's still interesting.

Re:Android Dominance?

[jandrese]

It's well documented that iOS users tend to use their phones a lot more than Android users. Same thing in tablet space.

Did You Get a Voucher for Windows Lol?

[eldavojohn]

No, no problem using words instead of numbers. Numbers are boring. Also, you can get it wrong - windows 3,95,98,2000,7. Lol!

So they just went ahead and changed "Windows 8" to "Windows Lol!"? Sounds about right ...

Re:Android Dominance?

[h4rr4r]

Or that people who did not have to pay for iDevices had enough money left to buy computers :)

Confusing Analogy

[SuperKendall]

It rules for the same reason that when you look in the parking lot you see no two cars alike. They all have different versions of equipment, or different model years. Nobody cares....they come in every size, shape, color, style, feature combination and price that one could want. Openness. It appears that it may always win in the long run.

What is "open" about cars at all? I can't generally use parts between them, often not even within the same model line between years.

About as close as a car gets to being "open" is that I can buy a floor-mat that fits badly in ALMOST any car.

Cars are "open" in the same way that Android and iOS and WP8 and every other Smart phone are "open" already. I can buy a tank of gas anywhere and use it in my car (well, not Diesel....). I can also use a number of carriers from any smart phone (well, not any smart phone, some are carrier locked). I can browse the web anywhere, well, except for web sites that use Flash or SIlverlight because those plugins don't exist anymore on most mobile smartphones.

I guess they are alike in that I can use the same cleaning products for any car, and can find cleaning products that also work for any smart phone?

In the end your analogy just seems really bad, even considering it's based on cars which are foolproof in the analogy department.

But perhaps it's just you trying to claim something the opposite of what is being demonstrated; cars after all are a prime example of how proprietary and closed wins over the hearts and minds of consumers.

Verizon has 3G coverage in Hell, MI

[tepples]

You try getting a Verizon signal from in hell. Then we'll see who's laughing.

I looked up the ZIP code for Hell, went to Verizon's coverage map, typed in ZIP code 48169, and I discovered that yes, Verizon has 3G coverage in Hell.