Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has reported that Android 6.0 Marshmallow has finally reached 10% adoption meaning one out of every 10 Android devices are running on Marshmallow.
The report indicates that it is the first time that the OS has reached double digits in percentage. The company is pleased with the new milestone especially because it means the adoption rate is now rising at a higher pace. It took four months for Marshmallow to reach 1% adoption but it has since then risen and surpassed the Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich Android versions. The OS still has to catch up with Android KitKat and Lollipop which have the highest adoption rates. KitKat takes the lead at 31.6% followed by Lollipop 5.0\5.1 with 35.4% and Jelly at 18.9% respectively. Android Marshmallow registered a 10.1% adoption rate. A sugar free version has not been announced.
The statistics were provided by Google’s Android Developer Dashboard. The software giant collected this data by analyzing the number of Android handsets that visited the Play Store over a period of seven days until June 6. The overall statistics suggest that older operating systems have a higher adoption rate than the latest OS versions. The data also highlighted that Marshmallow has only been available to device manufacturers for a period of eight months. This means that device manufacturers such as HTC, LG, and Samsung are taking their time adopting the OS.
Adoption rates are vital statistics for Alphabet because Google relies on OS adoption to fix some of the problems related with older Android versions including security loopholes. This means that the latest operating systems are more secure and they also provide the company with more income-generating opportunities which is why Google is pushing for adoption of its latest Android OS versions. The company also provides regular security updates but carriers have been taking too long to release these updates thus raising questions about the security process.
Google also is urging the shift to newer Android versions in order to support app developers. The company recently announced that it will be publicly ranking manufacturers based on how fast they update their devices.
