The numbers break down as follows: Froyo (Android 2.2) leads the way at 57.6 per cent followed by Eclair (Android 2.1) at 31.4 per cent and Gingerbread (Android 2.3) at 0.8 per cent. Remember Gingerbread is currently only available on the recently launched Nexus S device, which accounts for the low adoption rate.
On the surface of things, it would appear that older version of Android, such as 1.5 and 1.6 are being phased out nicely, with those two incarnations of the OS sitting at a combined 10.1 per cent.
But the way I see it, the numbers actually indicate that 41.6 per cent of Android-based devices are not running Froyo. My personal device, the Motorola XT720, was initially planned for a upgrade to Froyo, but that has since been canceled by Motorola.
I suspect many of those 31.4 per cent of users on Android 2.1 will be stuck there.
Despite what these latest numbers from Google might suggest, the company has a long way to go in fixing the Android upgrade system. Of course, carriers and manufacturers need to work harder on keeping everybody up-to-date, but perhaps Google needs to take some more ownership in this area.
This has to happen if Android is to maintain its huge growth numbers.
