Google Play Device and Operating System Market Share
It goes without saying that dealing with fragmentation is something you’re going to have to face if you want to build Apps for the Google Play store. The charts to follow will help you get an idea of the current marketshare so you know where you should be spending most of your time when creating the size of your designs.
Also, if you want to actually get featured on Google Play conquering fragmentation issues is just but one concern.
You’d be silly not to make sure that you support the latest devices and operating systems, particularly from the Nexus (Google) brand.
Secondly, stay informed on what devices are causing issues for other Android developers. Additionally, you always want to extend the use of your “Gold Master” build on as many devices as you can get a hold of. Testing on an emulator will really only take you so far, and Android makes it easy to share development builds with others (so there’s no excuses). At the very least, have your friends and family test it out.
3rd..
If after you’re finished with developing you find yourself with not a friend by your side then there are services like 3rdparty and Beta programs like Utest or TESTDROID that can help you out ;).
Now what about those charts?
While the majority (67%) of this chart reveals that the devices are “other” which doesn’t help at all, it’s clear that Samsung leads 2nd, and 3rd spot with 11% being from the Samsung Galaxy S2 and 10% being from the Samsung Galaxy S3.
So let’s take a deeper look at those two:
As you can see below for the Samsung Galaxy S2
Ice Cream Sandwhich (53%) and Gingerbread (46%) represent the majority of device operating systems, which a fraction (1%) being with Jellybean 4.1x
As for the Samsung Galaxy S3:
It’s apparent that Jellybean has been ‘scooped’ out, and Ice Cream Sandwhich leads with 69% operating share, while Jellybean has 31%.
Android Operating System Market Share:
As the graph below indicates Ice Cream sandwhich alone represents nearly half (49%) of the market with Gingerbread close behind (39%).
Unfortunately what’s shown in the Developer Portal does not reflect the same figures.
Kevin is an Online and Mobile Marketing Strategist who has worked with companies of all sizes over the last 6 years. You can follow Kevin on any of the social platforms below.
