Android 'Jelly Bean' usage share more than doubles in a month

Over the past month Google has seen a massive increase in traffic to its Google Play app store from devices running the latest Android 4.1 and 4.2 "Jelly Bean" mobile operating system.

The data, collected during the 14-day period ending on December 3, 2012, shows that "Jelly Bean" usage share has more than doubled compared to the same period last month, rising from 2.7 percent to 6.7 percent.

Traffic from devices running Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" has also increased by 1.7 percentage points.

This is the largest shift in usage share seen in a long time, and suggests that adoption -- either driven through the sale of new devices, or because of existing devices being upgraded to the new operating system -- is accelerating.

One of the problems plaguing Android has been getting the latest version of the operating system installed onto older hardware.

See also: Best Android-powered smartphones (November 2012 edition)

Most of the major OEMs are still pushing out hardware running older versions of the platform. Even new smartphones such as Motorola's DROID RAZR MAXX HD still ship with Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich".

The slow adoption of new versions of Android affects everyone in the ecosystem. It forces developers to support an ever-increasing array of aging versions, while at the same time preventing them from making full use of new features.

For consumers, it means that they are denied new features and not getting security updates that help keep their handsets and tablets safe from hackers and malware. 

The most popular version of Android continues to be Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," a version that hasn't seen an update since September 2011.

While Google has taken over four-and-a-half months to break 6 percent, data published by research firm Chitika Insights showed that Apple saw over 60 percent of iPhones and iPads upgraded to iOS 6.0 in under four weeks.

Image source: Google Developer Dashboard.