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We're starting out with some Android development in our company, and I'm working out which Android versions we should support.

In one of Google's videos from 27th May 2010 (22:34 minutes in) there is a pie chart showing roughly a third of users each for Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.1.

Does anyone have a more up-to-date source for the percentages of active Android users using each version of the platform?

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This question probably belongs on StackOverflow. but as a developer, it's pretty easy to set the minsdk = android 1.5, and the target = latest version of android (2.2 or 2.3, etc). You can then support all versions, you just have to be careful if you need a specific API that only exists in later versions of Android. – Bryan Denny♦ Jan 6 '11 at 18:02
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@bryan I think this is a good place for this question -- I deleted the duplicate on meta as this is not a meta question (eg it is ABOUT android itself, not our website) – Jeff Atwood♦ Jan 7 '11 at 1:33
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@Jeff Agreed. He's a developer but he's not really asking a dev question. – Matthew Read♦ Jan 7 '11 at 18:22
The question says users, but it really means devices. Now that tablets are mainstream, a lot of people have multiple Android devices and they may not all be the same version of Android. – Al Everett May 2 at 13:35

1 Answer

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Checkout the Platform Versions page on the Android Developer web site.

UPDATED May 2, 20131

Version       Codename      Distribution
1.6            Donut            0.1%
2.1            Eclair           1.7%
2.2            Froyo            3.7%
2.3-2.3.2      Gingerbread      0.1%
2.3.3-2.3.7                    38.4%
3.2            Honeycomb        0.1%
4.0.3-4.0.4    Ice Cream       27.5%
               Sandwich
4.1.x          Jelly Bean      26.1%
4.2.x                           2.3%

1 Data collected during a 14-day period ending on May 1, 2013. Any versions with less than 0.1% distribution are not shown. (Beginning in April, 2013, these charts are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store. Previously, the data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers.)

Android version distribution

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Good job finding a resource which should stay up-to-date. – Al Everett Jan 6 '11 at 19:01
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Just a tiny side note for those who don't follow the link: That data is based on devices hitting Google Play (I presume this includes devices checking for updates), so it should be representative of devices in general use. – Michael Kohne Jul 3 '12 at 13:27

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