In the wake of its crunchy KitKat news, Tech giant Google has released the latest Android mobile operating system (OS) usage data, revealing which version of the platform is doing duty on users’ smartphones and tablets. These figures were compiled from data Google collected during a two week period that ended on 4 September 2013.

Android Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 - 4.3) continues to boost its usage rates quicker than the wink of an eye. Jelly Bean now powers 45.1% of all Android-running mobile devices compared to four out of every ten (40.5%) last month.

Amongst others, Jelly Bean’s growth has come at Android Gingerbread’s (Android 2.3.3 - 2.3.7) expense, as it dropped its usage share from 33.1% to 30.7% currently. Also melting a bit in the adoption heat of Jelly Bean is Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.3 - 4.0.4), with a share of 21.7% that is slightly down from last month’s 22.5%.

The tablet loving Honeycomb (Android 3.2) is still clinging on for dear life, handling the operating on 0.1% of Android-powered devices. Honeycomb’s Android retirement village neighbour, Froyo (Android 2.2), possesses a 2.4% Android usage stake. Donut (Android 1.6) and Eclair (Android 2.1) have finally been put out to pasture as both these outdated iterations of Android no longer even feature in Google’s usage data summary.  

Source: Android Developer’s website

Check out our Android apps of the month for September 2013 here.