Every month, Google releases the Android distribution numbers showing the popular Android versions. These numbers are very important for App developers as they use them to develop apps targeting the popular Android versions to ensure more downloads.
For the January stats, we can clearly see that Jelly Bean is still the most popular Android version having 46% market share. This means that close to half of all Android devices on the market are running on Jelly Bean. As you digest that, keep in mind that Jelly Bean was released two and a half years ago.
Android distribution numbers
Android 4.4 KitKat has also seen substantial growth and now has 39% market share. This may not be big but still significant from the 33.9% market share from a month ago. The data released by Google does not show the numbers by Android 5.0 Lollipop and this may be because it has less than 0.1% market share. Google does not list Android versions with less than 0.1% market share.
Number three on the list is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with 6.7% market share, Android 2.3 Gingerbread with 7.8% market share and finally Android 2.2 Froyo with 0.4% market share.
Source [Android]
