Android Nougat hits 0.4% adoption after 3 months

Google today released new statistics about adoption of different versions of its Android mobile operating system. They show that Android 7.0 Nougat, which was first released in September, is now running on 0.4 percent of Android devices.

The percentage is certainly small, but the base is large. Android has more than a billion active users. What that means is Android Nougat could be running on more than 4 million devices.

That’s up from 0.3 percent, or presumably more than 3 million devices, as of early November.

Above: Android adoption as of December 5.

Image Credit: Screenshot

But as usual, Google’s latest mobile operating system is not nearly as widely adopted as Apple’s. As of November 27, around 63 percent of iOS devices are running iOS 10, according to Apple’s data.

Here are the changes in Android adoption from November to December, as per Google’s Platform Versions data:

• Android 7.0 Nougat (August 2016): Up 0.1 point to 0.4 percent
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow (October 2015): Up 2.3 points to 26.3 percent
• Android 5.0/5.1 Lollipop (November 2014, March 2015): Down 0.1 point to 34 percent
• Android 4.4 KitKat (October 2013): Down 1.2 points to 24 percent
• Android 4.1/4.2/4.3 Jelly Bean (July 2012, November 2012, and July 2013): Down 0.9 points to 12.8 percent
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (December 2011): Down 0.1 point to 1.2 percent
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread (December 2010): Down 0.1 point to 1.2 percent
• Android 2.2 Froyo (May 2010): Flat at 0.1 percent

Devices running Android versions that are older than 2.2 aren’t included. Devices without Google Play are not, either. Nor are Android versions that have less than 0.1 percent adoption.

The Android adoption order now stands as: Lollipop in first place, Marshmallow in second (that’s new!), KitKat in third, Jelly Bean in fourth, Gingerbread and ICS tied for fifth, and Froyo in last. It’s reasonable to expect Marshmallow to become the most popular version next year. As for Nougat, it will become No. 1 later.