Web search giant Google has released the latest Android mobile operating system (OS) usage information, revealing which version is utilised most on user’s smartphones and tablets. These figures were compiled from data Google collected during a two week period that ended on 1 August 2012.

Despite the fact that Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS, Android 4.0-4.0.4) was unveiled in October last year and has been available on the market for some time now, Gingerbread (Android 2.3 - 2.3.7) remains master of Android’s smartphone realm. This smartphone platform obtained the lion’s share (60.6%) of the Android usage pie, but this is a drop of almost 4% down compared to July’s figure (64%).

Clawing its way to second place with a 15.9% stake (up from 10.9%) is ICS, which has managed to overtake Froyo (Android 2.2), thanks to this frozen dessert melting from 17.3% in July to 15.5% in August.   

On the fringes we find the stale trio of Eclair (Android 2.1), Donut (Android 1.6) and Cupcake (Android 1.5), with respective shares of 4.2%, 0.5% and 0.2%. Keeping company with these three is the tablet-only Honeycomb (Android 3.1-3.2), which hangs onto a 2.3% share of the Android usage pie. The latest entry, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1), has a minority 0.8% stake.