Android Lollipop passes 5% adoption, KitKat overtakes Jelly Bean to take first place

Google released its monthly update to the Platform Versions page for Android today, and once again the latest version has increased its adoption share. Android 5.0 Lollipop has passed the 5 percent mark, while Android 4.4 KitKat was the only other version to gain adoption share.

In fact, KitKat has finally passed Jelly Bean, which encompasses Android 4.1, Android 4.2, and Android 4.3. In other words, there is a new Android king in town:

Here are the changes between March and April:

• Android 5.0 Lollipop (November 2014): Up 2.1 points to 5.4 percent
• Android 4.4 KitKat (October 2013): Up 0.5 points to 41.4 percent
• Android 4.1/4.2/4.3 Jelly Bean (July 2012, November 2012, and July 2013): Down 1.9 points to 40.7 percent
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (December 2011): Down 0.2 points to 5.7 percent
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread (December 2010): Down 0.5 points to 6.4 percent
• Android 2.2 Froyo (May 2010): Unchanged at 0.4 percent

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

As with any adoption share updates from this 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 (such as Amazon’s Fire line).

To recap, we now have KitKat in first place, Jelly Bean in second, Gingerbread in third, ICS in fourth, Lollipop in fifth, and Froyo in sixth. The next order change should be Lollipop passing Gingerbread.

As we’ve said before, Lollipop’s slow start is not surprising, given the lukewarm popularity of the Nexus line and how long it takes for Android device manufacturers to push out updates. Even with Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, we’re not expecting the latest version of Android to see significant adoption anytime soon.