Nearly half of all Android devices running latest 'Jelly Bean' software
Android adoption in "Jelly Bean," Google's latest mobile operating system release, rose to more than 45 percent in August, according to new stats out today.
The latest Android software, which collectively includes 4.1 and 4.2, rose by 5 percentage points last month, as all other older versions of the software declined in share.
It comes in the same week after Google announced "KitKat" would be the codename of the next version of the world's most use mobile operating system, in conjunction with trademark owner Nestle, and Hershey's, which licenses the name for use in the U.S. market.
Google's senior vice president of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai announced on Google+ on Tuesday that the company has now surpassed the one billion Android device activations worldwide, including both smartphones and tablets.
"Ice Cream Sandwich," version 4.0, remains in close second with 21.7 percent of the share of all devices running the latest Google Play Store app, which is how Google calculates the overall figures.
Google's software version fragmentation remains, as ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes noted back in May when the share of "Jelly Bean" devices was about half of what it has today, that a push in the software version's expansion reduces fragmentation over time.
But whether or not Google can keep a lid on "KitKat" long enough to see a steep decline in older software versions remains to be seen. After all, "KitKat" could pose the same fragmentation risks that "Ice Cream Sandwich" had with "Gingerbread."