Almost nobody is using the latest version of Android

Almost nobody is using Google’s latest and most ambitious update to its Android operating system. Based on the company’s latest numbers, less than 0.1 per cent of all Android devices are running the latest version called Lollipop. It doesn’t even appear on the chart, because we don’t represent distributions with less than 0.1 per cent adoption.

Most Android users are still on Android Jelly Bean (46 per cent of devices), followed by KitKat (39.1 per cent), the most recent version of Android that came out before Lollipop. Android suffers from a ton of “fragmentation” — that is, many di f ferent versions of the software out at the same time — because Google gives third parties like hardware makers and carriers lots of leeway on what they can do with the platform. It’s difficult to roll out new updates since each new software edition must pass through so many different channels before it reaches the end user. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for developers trying to build Android apps — which version do they build for?.