Google Can't Solve Android Fragmentation Problem Yet

Despite Google's fragmentation fix being released a year ago in August 2017, Android still shows no signs of improvement in this key area. According to Google's Android version distribution data as of October 26, the most widely used Android version is Android Nougat, with a share of 28.2%, which was released more than two years ago in August 2016. The 14-month-old Android Oreo version ranks second with 21.5%, and Google's three-year-old Android Marshmallow version ranks third with 21.3%. Of course, you'll also notice that Google's latest mobile platform version is completely missing from this chart - Android Pie, which was released three months ago on August 6.

By comparison, the iOS 12 software can now be found on 60% of all iOS devices within 44 days of release. At 87 days, Android Pie didn’t even have enough Android devices to be counted. As you’ll notice from the last row of the Google chart above, Android Pie has less than 0.1% of the devices.

The worst part about this is that last year's Android Oreo release included Google's fix for Android fragmentation, which was actually a fantastic solution. But it apparently hasn't done anything yet. It's called Project Treble, and it gives Android smartphone vendors like Samsung and LG a way to separate the latest version of Android with their own interface tweaks and additional features.

Prior to Android Oreo, Android phone manufacturers had to redesign their software from top to bottom to build a new version of Android. The software then had to be thoroughly tested by vendors and wireless carriers before it could be released. However, in Project Treble on Android Oreo and above, the process has been simplified. Android phone manufacturers can apply their previous "vendor implementation" to the updated core Android framework, making the process much simpler than before.

Android phone makers have had more than a year to process the changes brought about by Project Treble. What's more, we know how Treble works - it took OnePlus 45 days to update the OnePlus 6 to Android Pie. 45 days! Compared to older Android updates, that's almost a miracle. But as we can see in Google's Android version distribution data above, Android Pie adoption hasn't improved as Android fans had hoped.