If you are an Android phone user, and your smartphone runs the newest
Android 8.0 (Oreo) operating system, count yourself very lucky. Google
has released the November distribution numbers for Android running on
devices globally, and a measly 0.3% of all Android devices run the
newest software—a rather minimal gain from 0.2% last month. Android 8.0
(Oreo) was rolled out in August.
These not very encouraging
numbers stem from the fact that phone makers, as has been the case over
the past few years, have been taking their own sweet time in updating
phones with Android’s latest version. As we speak, Google’s own older
Nexus phones, the newer Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 2, last year’s Pixel XL and
Pixel, as well as Sony’s Xperia XZ1 are just some of the phones that run
Android Oreo.
According
to Google’s numbers, Android 6 (Marshmallow) still runs on 30.9%
devices, the highest among all Android iterations, followed by the even
older Android 5.1 (Lollipop) at 20.8%.
As it turns
out, most other phone makers have confirmed that at least the flagship
phones will get the newest Android as an update before the end of the
year. OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 5 will get Oreo before the
end of the year. HMD Global, the makers of Nokia branded phones, have
also confirmed that the Oreo update for the Nokia 8 will be rolling out
in the coming weeks. HTC has also confirmed that the U11 smartphone is
due for the newest Android update anytime in the coming weeks as well.
On their part, Samsung and Huawei are also testing the beta builds of
Android Oreo for their phones, though the exact rollout plan is a bit
tentative at the moment.
According to Google’s numbers, Android 6
(Marshmallow) still runs on 30.9% devices, the highest among all
Android iterations, followed by the even older Android 5.1 (Lollipop) at
20.8%. Last year’s Android Nougat (7.0 and 7.1) combine for 20.6%
devices. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the regular malware
attacks on Android phones, since the older operating systems are not as
robust in terms of security, data encryption and handling malware.
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