LONDON: Google has released the monthly update to the Android version adoption numbers on its Developer Dashboard, and the slow adoption of Lollipop continues. The good news is that the uptake has risen over the last quarter, and is expected to accelerate with the latest smartphone releases.
Google’s report in January gave Android 5.0 Lollipop a market share that was less than 0.1% market share for the month before. That rose to 1.6% during January, 3.3% during February, and now over 5% in March.
The adoption of Android Lollipop has been limited by the processes and certifications in place with each manufacturer and carrier, and has been a patchwork rollout process at best. This is the nature of Android, with no central point of distribution for bug fixes, updates, and tweaks. I personally think that this is an issue that needs addressed inside the Android world, but with so many stakeholders trying to maintain their personal advantages, I’m not holding my breath.
It’s also worth noting that KitKat has seen a very slight increase in adoption (41.4%, over 40.9% from the previous month), while other variants of the OS maintained or lost share of the market.
The market share numbers are determined by visitors to the Google Play Store, with the analysis taking place over a seven-day period.
I’d expect to see Android Lollipop’s numbers rise during Q2 2015. With a number of new flagship handsets from LG, HTC, and Samsung, all hitting the stores this month with Android 5.0 installed as default. That should boost the adoption numbers and I would expect that Lollipop as a whole will reach 10% before the summer months.
That’s important from a developers point of view. Once Lollipop hits double figures there are enough handsets running the latest version of Android that makes addressing Android 5.x exclusively a viable option, and Lollipop can be considered as its own platform.
