Google recently updated its Android distribution numbers after six months of silence. Things are looking pretty good—10 percent of all Android devices are now running the latest version, which puts adoption ahead of schedule.
It’s no secret that full Android OS updates are slow to roll out to devices beyond a select few like Pixel and Essential, so seeing Pie at 10 percent adoption eight months after release is a bit surprising. For comparison, it took Nougat and Oreo ten months each to hit the same number, which shows progress even if the number itself is still small in comparison to Android devices on the whole.
As for the other numbers, Oreo is now on 28 percent of devices, with Nougat on 19 percent. Marshmallow, Lollipop, and KitKat are running 17 percent, 14.5 percent, and 7 percent of devices, respectively, putting the three newest versions (Nougat, Oreo, and Pie) on nearly 58 percent of all Android devices in the wild. That’s a lot better than how the numbers looked just a couple of years ago.
The increased adoption rate is likely thanks to Project Treble, which Google created just for this reason: to help manufacturers build faster updates for their devices. Hopefully, this will continue to be a trend, and adoption rates will grow and exceed expectations since Treble is a feature manufacturers have been required to implement since Oreo.
While 10 percent is still nothing to brag about eight months after release—especially compared to iOS 12, which was at 83 percent adoption as of February 2019—it again shows some promise for the future of Android OS updates. All new devices now support Treble out of the box, so here’s to hoping for faster OS updates for all Android devices moving forward.
In other news, Amazon is releasing a security camera with two years of battery life, Roku has 29.1 million users, a Galaxy Fold release date is coming, and more.
- The new Blink camera gets two years of battery life on a pair of AA batteries: Motion detection, two-way talk, and more are along for the ride in the new Blink XT2. All for $100. [Amazon]
- Roku’s user base grows, but it’s not enough: Roku now has 29.1 million users averaging 3.5 hours of device usage per day, but that’s still not enough for it to break even on operating costs with hardware alone. But with the company taking a more aggressive approach in its ad business, it still expects to have a bang-up year. [Engadget]
- A Fold release date is coming: Samsung is expected to announce a Galaxy Fold release date “today or tomorrow” after reviewing all the crap that went wrong with review units and [hopefully] fixing them. [The Verge]
- Google says its music apps have 15 million subscribers: That’s far fewer than Spotify or Apple Music, but more than Pandora. Now if the company could decide on one music service and stick with it, that would be great. [Bloomberg]
- Alexa supports 60,000 devices: Amazon quietly updated its Alexa support documentation stating that it works with some 60k devices from 7,400 brands. That’s a massive jump from the 20k it supported in September 2018. [Android Police]
In some cool news for the sneakerheads out there (or, you know, other people who just kind of like shoes), Nike is going to start using AR to show you how kicks look on your feet before you drop hundreds of moneydollars on them. It’s coming to the Nike app this summer. What a neat, practical use for AR. I dig it. [Engadget]
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