Google: 77% of Android devices running 2.1 or later

Google has published an updated breakdown of the number of active devices running a given version of its Android mobile operating system. According to the Platform Versions device dashboard on the Android Developer portal, more than three out of four Android devices are now running version 2.1 (Eclair) or later – an increase of 3% compared to early October and nearly 13% over early August of this year. Android 1.5 and 1.6 devices now make up 7.9% and 15% of devices respectively, a decrease from 9.7% and 16.4% at the beginning of last month.

Announced at the company's Google I / O developer conference earlier this year, Android 2.2 "Froyo" is the latest stable version of Google's open source mobile OS. First appearing on Google's Nexus One smartphone, Android 2.2 has since arrived as an update for a number of existing devices, like HTC's GSM Desire phone, the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola's Droid phone on US CDMA carrier Verizon. Even though some new devices are still shipping with older versions of Android and have yet to be updated, various new devices, such as HTC's latest Desire HD and Desire Z, will already include the current version from the factory.

Source: Google

The next major release of Android, version 3.0 code named "Gingerbread", will reportedly require at least a 1 GHz processor, a 3.5-inch display and 512 MB of RAM. Devices that don't meet the new requirements will likely remain on either version 2.1 or 2.2 of Android. An official release date or specific details for Gingerbread have yet to be confirmed by Google.

See also:

• Google: Android Market has 100,000 apps, a report from The H.
• Google completes Android 3.0?, a report from The H.
• CyanogenMod 6.0 brings Android 2.2 to older devices, a report from The H.

(crve)