The VAR Guy

As you may recall, I questioned Dell for releasing their Streak Phone/Tablet with Google Android 1.6. Now, there are some clear signs that most of the Android market has moved onto Google’s more mature Android releases. A case in point: Android 2.x (the arguably most ‘up to date’ version of Android) now commands 70% of the Android OS handhelds in the market. Read on for the quick details…

The big issue with Android, versus an mobile OS like Apple iOS, is lack of control over which Android releases hardware companies choose to embrace. Apple has clearly set guidelines on what versions of their phones get which version of their operating system, but Google doesn’t dictate that way in the Android market. So the result is fragmentation among Android devices and OS versions. Savvy Android users (like myself) would stay on the bleeding edge of the OS, upgrading nearly as soon as Google released source code thanks to hard working hackers and developers. But not everyone enjoyed that process, instead, waiting around for carrier or vendor updates (e.g. from Motorola or Verizon) arrive.

Fortunately, the old versions of Android are making a transition away and the 2.x versions of Android now command roughly 70 percent of the Android OPS market. You can go ahead and read the details over at the Android Developer’s resource site, but the only figure you really need to look at is pictured below.

So what’s the bigger picture? Well, with a more cohesive “base” OS floating around the Android world, that means good things for Google to build upon. Increased adoption and use leads to increased focus on features, improvement and more. It also means a maturation of the platform, which is arguably the biggest issue at hand right now.

Android continues to grow and grow, and these latest figures show that not only is the platform growing, but the user-base is, too.

Here’s to Google keeping Apple honest. As a previous Android user, I loved the OS but felt it lacked some serious polish. Will this new figure spur more development on Android 2.5 or 3.0 to bring that? Let me know how you feel about Android’s adoption and maturation.

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