Google's recent stats show the Android Marshmallow crossed an important milestone.
The latest OS from Google is present on more than 10 percent of Android gadgets, a significant spike from the 2.3 percent adoption rate back in March.
Thanks to the developer stats that Google gathers, an accurate image of the Android landscape exists. Meet the Android Distribution report, a monthly insight into the distribution of Android versions across mobile devices.
Over the last few months, headlines raved about the slow adoption rate of Marshmallow. However, one thing that can be observed in the latest figures is that the latest Android OS is picking up its pace.
Specifically, the latest data set shows that Marshmallow jumped the 10 percent mark, and it is most likely not going to slow down.
The month-over-month increase follows an upward pattern set up by previous evolutions. Marshmallow jumped from 4.6 percent in April to 7.5 percent in May. However, the latest 10.1 percent milestone is important, as this is the first time when the latest Android OS scores double digits.
Android Marshmallow rolled out in October 2015.
In comparison, let's take a look at how the other Android versions fared. Android 5.0 (Lollipop) saw a downward spiral during the past few months, with the deceleration continuing in June.
While in May Lollipop registered a 35.6 percent presence, the new figures show it at 35.4 percent.
Numbers for the Android 5.0 build show 15.4 percent presence, while Android 5.1 sits at 20 percent. Pitted against the numbers from last month, Android 5.0 shows a decline from the previous 16.2 percent, but Android 5.1 boosted its numbers from the anterior 19.4 percent.
Android 4.4 (KitKat) also slowed down to 31.6 percent, after it registered a presence rate of 32.5 percent during last month.
Android 4.1/4.2/4.3, a.k.a. Jelly Bean, dropped 1.2 points from the 20.1 percent in May, reaching 18.9 percent in June. The three variants of Android are among the OSs with the biggest decelerations in the line. Taking a closer look, it seems that Jelly Bean lost 6.8 percent for Android 4.1.x, 9.4 percent with Android 4.2.x and 2.7 percent on Android 4.3.
The oldest versions of Android also scored lower rates during the past month.
Android 4.0.3-4.0.4 (dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich), went down from 2.0 percent to 1.9 percent, while Android 2.3.3-2.3.7 (Gingerbread) sunk 2.2 percent and reached 2.0 percent.
Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) stayed put at a rather symbolic adoption rate of 0.1 percent.
As Google samples the figures, the Platform Versions tool takes data from the Google Play Store app. Keep in mind that the Play Store is available only to devices sporting Android 2.2 and newer. This implies that gadgets that work on older versions of Android or that do not have Google Play installed fall outside the statistics.
Observant readers might have gathered that the surge in Marshmallow's popularity is far from coincidental. During the past three months, quite a number of smartphones came with the OS out of the box.
Aside from Samsung's Galaxy S7, important OEMs rolled out commended devices carrying Android 6.0, such as the HTC 10, the LG G5 and new Sony Xperias. Correlating the figures simply indicates that an important number of Android fans upgraded their antiquated KitKat-carrying handsets and chose future-proof Marshmallow-laden smartphones.
