Android version split, where should developers go?

Recently, Google released a distribution chart of Android versions. The situation is not optimistic as always. The latest version of Android 5.0 Lollipop has a market share of only 0.1%, while Android 4.4 Kitkat has just reached 39.1%. We can once again lament that the Android system version is split. However, Pocket Casts developer Russell Ivanovic wrote on his blog that from the developer's perspective, this split actually does not have much impact.

He believes that when people see these numbers, it is easy to make wrong analysis. These analyses often ignore two facts. First, the number of Android devices on the market is 6 to 7 times the number of iOS devices. Therefore, if developers target the KitKat version of Android, which has a 39% market share, then the number of users may exceed that of iOS 8. Second, people often confuse the overall number with the number of users who actually purchase the app. Take the users of Pocket Casts as an example:

From the perspective of the overall Android ecosystem, Android 5.0 only accounts for 1% of the market share, but among Pocket Cast users, 23% have already used the latest system. The reason is that those who buy apps and those who like the Android system have phones with brand new systems, while those who use old phones that are more than 5 years old and run Android 2.3 may never buy Pocket Casts.

In addition, Android has another feature that is different from iOS. If iOS users want to use the features of iOS 8, they can only install iOS 8, but this is not the case with Android. Google has put many features in two libraries: Support and Google Play Services. Google Play Service is updated through the store and is not bound to a specific version of the system, while Support is something that developers put in the app and is updated daily by Google. When a new version of Android is released, many new APIs are in these two libraries, not in the core part of the system. This means that even with older system versions, users can use new features. In some ways, Android's backward compatibility is better than iOS.

His advice to developers is

Android major updates are not fixed on a certain day. Each phone has an update date. Therefore, it only makes sense to consider the penetration of new Android versions after manufacturers have updated their devices.
Most developers should ignore the Android version distribution and only think about the specific version they want to target.
Revenue on Android is more stable than on iOS, and app sales are not affected as much when a new version is released.
If you are developing a new app, you can target Android 4.1 or higher. Targeting 5.0 may be a little early, but it will be fine in a few months. If you update frequently, developers can consider version 4.4.