Nougat is gaining momentum, but the going is slow.
The latest Android distribution numbers put Nougat adoption — including both 7.0 and 7.1 — at 13.5%, an increase of 2% from a month prior. Android 7.0 Nougat is installed on 12.3% of active Android devices, while 7.1 accounts for 1.2%.
An interesting trend over the last two months has been the rise of Marshmallow devices. After holding steady at 31.2% in both May and June, Marshmallow saw a modest increase to 31.8% last month. The OS picked up a 0.5% increase in August as well, bringing its share to 32.3%.
With Lollipop falling to under 30% (it’s now at 29.2% for both 5.0 and 5.1), Marshmallow is the most widely-used version of Android globally. And although KitKat is down a percentage point from July, it still occupies a share of 17.1%.
Elsewhere, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean account for 9% of active devices, a minor decrease of 0.5% from last month. With the Nougat update now rolling out to more devices and manufacturers offering budget phones with Android 7.0, the operating system will hopefully pick up some much-needed momentum in the coming months.
Android O is on the horizon, but the update will be limited to the Nexuses and Pixel devices initially, with the likes of the Galaxy S8, Moto Z2 Force, and OnePlus 5 taking a few months at least to receive the update.