Unlike iOS, made available on all compatible iPhones as soon as new versions are published, Android has historically suffered from fragmentation. Manufacturers roll out operating system upgrades at varying rates, often reserving first for their most high-end devices.
Google releases statistics reflecting Android distributions no longer publicly, as it used to do every month for the past decade, but via the Android Studio tool, dedicated to developers. The previous figures dating back to August 2022, that is to say before the deployment of the final version of Android 13 – i.e. when the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro were released – these new statistics are the first to give an overview of the progress of updates from third-party manufacturers.
Android 11 still ahead
Adoption of Android 13 is all in all slow, since Google notes that this version is used by 5.2% of the Android terminal fleet. Even the previous version, Android 12, is not the majority on the market, since it represents only 18.9% of terminals, an increase of just over 5% in five months. Android 11 still represents 24.4% of the stock… and there are even 0.7% of devices under KitKat, i.e. Android 4.4, launched in 2013.
This observation is not really surprising if we keep in mind that there were three billion active Android terminals last May, of which one billion were put into service during the previous twelve months, according to the figures communicated by Google during his last I/O conference. The race to roll out upgrades to Android 13 is now being led by Samsung, which is among the fastest brands on this point, with the Korean promising up to four OS updates on a growing share of its catalog. Others, like Oppo or Sony, and more recently Xiaomi, are increasing their efforts to limit their delay. But in the end, to witness the democratization of Android 13, it will be necessary above all to wait for the release of new smartphones and tablets which will be natively equipped with it. And between the Galaxy S23, the Xiaomi 13, or the OnePlus 11, the start of the year 2023 promises to be busy in this respect.