Android 2.2 Market Share Growing

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Google via their Android Developer blog often posts monthly data on what marketshare each version of Android holds. It’s particularly useful to developers, since they know whether or not to make things compatible for older versions of the OS or what not. It’s being provided by Google, so feel free to believe that it’s doctored, but it’s probably the most accurate data that we’ll find. And it’s showing that Android 2.2 is growing at an accelerated rate.

The numbers are based on devices that access the Android Market in two weeks preceding September 1st. Only devices from members of the Open Handset Alliance can run the Android Market, which includes the vast majority of Android devices – but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that it doesn’t include ALL android devices.

Here are the Android marketshare numbers for September 2010:

• Android 2.1 – 41.7%
• Android 2.2 – 28.7%
• Android 1.6 – 17.5%
• Android 1.5 – 12.0%
• Older – 0.1%

While the pro-iPhone “Fragmentation!”-screaming message board dwellers won’t be happy that the market isn’t unified, Android 2.2 is seeing tremendous growth. In August ’10, it held about 5% of the marketshare. So, it’s gaining a lot of tracsion.

And, if the Android 3.0+ rumors are to be believed, Google will be implementing stricter hardware requirements in order to attempt to control market fragmentation.