16 months in, Lollipop becomes the most used Android version

There is a new Android king in town, and its name is Lollipop. Google released its monthly update to the Platform Versions page for Android today, and the gold and silver positions have swapped.

Android Lollipop has managed to finally pass Android KitKat in terms of adoption. The achievement took 16 months: Google debuted the Nexus 9, the first device to sport Android 5.0, back in November 2014.

The sad reality with Android adoption is that only some months after a new version is released (in this case Marshmallow) does its predecessor finally take first place. In other words, the most used version of Android is always outdated.

Here are the changes between February and March:

• Android 6.0 Marshmallow (October 2015): Up 1.1 points to 2.3 percent
• Android 5.0/5.1 Lollipop (November 2014, March 2015): Up 2.0 points to 36.1 percent
• Android 4.4 KitKat (October 2013): Down 1.2 points to 34.3 percent
• Android 4.1/4.2/4.3 Jelly Bean (July 2012, November 2012, and July 2013): Down 1.6 points to 22.3 percent
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (December 2011): Down 0.2 points to 2.3 percent
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread (December 2010): Down 0.1 points to 2.6 percent
• Android 2.2 Froyo (May 2010): Flat at 0.1 percent

As with any update courtesy of the Platform Versions tool, we have to point out that the data is gathered from the Google Play Store app, which requires Android 2.2 and above. This means devices running older versions are not included, nor are devices that don’t have Google Play installed (which includes many Android phones and tablets in China, Amazon’s Fire line, and so on). Also, Android versions that have less than 0.1 percent adoption, such as Android 3.0 Honeycomb, are not listed.

For the sake of comparison, here’s the Android adoption chart for February:

The Android adoption order now stands at: Lollipop in first place, KitKat in second, Jelly Bean in third, Gingerbread in fourth, ICS and Marshmallow tied for fifth, and Froyo in last. All eyes will now be on Marshmallow’s slow but hopefully steady growth.