Marshmallow remains most popular Android version, Oreo still below 1 percent

Android Oreo has been around for a few good months already, but it still struggles to jump above the 1 percent barrier. On the other hand, the Android distribution numbers by Google reveal that Marshmallow might soon lose the crown to Nougat. 

These are the slices of the Google Android pie for the 7-day period that ended on January 8:

• Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich - 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent
• Jelly Bean - 5.6 percent
• KitKat - 12.8 percent
• Lollipop - 25.1 percent
• Marshmallow - 28.6 percent
• Nougat - 26.3 percent 
• Oreo - 0.7 percent

The interesting part about Oreo is that Android 8.0 got the same 0.5 percent share as it had last month, but the recently released Android 8.1 update entered the top with a share of 0.2 percent. Although it might not happen next month, we expect to see Marshmallow slide into the second place pretty soon. On the other hand, Oreo usage should increase rapidly in the coming months thanks to the many handsets that receive it as an update.

When it comes to OpenGL versions and screen sizes/densities, there are no surprises. The dominant OpenGL ES versions are 2.0 (37.2 percent) and 3.0 (45.1 percent), while the most popular screen sizes still hang around the 5-inch spot. The most frequent pixel density values fall within the 240-480 dpi range.