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

[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...

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.

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 ...

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.