Ice Cream Sandwich Grows 50% In Latest Android Platform Stats

Google has released the latest breakdown of Android versions, with Ice Cream Sandwich continuing its slow penetration into handsets while Jelly Bean remains fledgling at best. The figures, based on active Android devices using the Play store within the past two weeks, confirm that 2.3 Gingerbread remains the most commonly used version of the open-source OS, with over 60-percent of installs.

Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.x, meanwhile, is now almost at 16-percent of installs. That's a rise of around 50-percent compared to a month ago, though with Jelly Bean's release on the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7, the goalposts for running the most current OS version have been moved once again.

Jelly Bean installs are at 0.8-percent, with only Google's two official Nexus devices getting the latest version. Exactly which manufacturers will be pushing out Jelly Bean updates to which devices remains to be seen: Sony has said its plans are still in flux having been stung with negative feedback over suggestions that some recent phones would be left behind, while LG has also confirmed that some of its phones will indeed be stuck on their current versions.

ASUS has been more forthcoming, as has HTC, which confirmed that the One X, One S and One XL would all get the new version. Samsung is yet to say when the best-selling Galaxy S III might be blessed with an upgrade.