Soon after the official launch of Google’s latest OS Android 7.0 Nougat, the company has also shared details about Android distribution data, revealing low adoption rates of Google’s new operating systems.
Currently, the latest Android OS is available on a few Nexus devices and reportedly started rolling out on Android One devices, which is not even 0.1 per cent. Even the popular Marshmallow, which was launched last year in October, has been adopted by on 18.7 per cent of devices, according to a Google Play distribution data update.
Considering that Google launches its mobile OS updates each year, the adoption rate seems rather low. The 18.7 per cent rate of Marshmallow adoption is a result of a 3.5 per cent increase from August.
This clearly reveals that maintaining so many operating systems for several Android devices is not only tough but also results in low adoption rates. According to the new data received from Google’s dashboards, there are still 0.1 per cent devices running on Android Froyo, which has not received an update over the past five years.
As the world moves towards newer operating systems and smart technologies, the need for such backdated architecture does not make sense. It just adds to the pile of old technology that exists ‘for the sake’ of it.
Well, Google may want to keep supporting older smartphones but then it is also holding back other manufacturers from building advanced headsets.
As a result of so many fragmentations, smaller smartphone manufacturers often skip updating their smartphones to support Google’s new operating systems, as it would require them to build updated smartphones. However, with the inflow of advanced technology, users need to own handsets which are compatible with the latest features available; older operating systems will never offer that.
Unbiased roll-out
Major Smartphone companies and Google’s own Nexus brand gets the new operating system updates first, and other devices have to wait long periods for the latest update. For instance, the Marshmallow is only on 18.7 per cent devices and the nougat is already officially out.
Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop is still present on 35 per cent of smartphones, which is not a good sign as most of these devices won’t ever get the Nougat update. Some companies are still launching devices with Lollipop as a result of competency issues with new operating systems.
In such a scenario, Google should at least try to roll out their new OS to all compatible devices, rather than only giving the initial updates to some selective devices.
