The anticipation for Google's latest software update increases, but only a handful of phones have gotten lucky so far. Android 7.0 Nougat is the latest software available in the market, but the phased rollout of the same is keeping many users on the edge.
As per the latest data published by Google on the Google Play distribution page, Android 7.0 Nougat is running only on 0.4 percent of active Android devices around the world as of December 5. This is a minor 0.1 percent increase since November.
Read: Motorola Android Nougat release tracker is live
Android Lollipop and Android 6.0 Marshmallow power most active Android devices. Android Marshmallow has a total market share of 26.3 percent, a 2.3 percent increase since last month, making it the single most used Android version right now.
Google's Android Lollipop powers a large share of 34 percent active Android devices, 23.2 percent of which run Android 5.1 version while the rest 10.8 percent use the dated Android 5.0 Lollipop. Android KitKat also has a sizable 24 percent share in the market, but the trend shows the Android Lollipop and Android KitKat's market share is slowly declining.
As devices get updated to the later versions of Android, we can expect the older OS lose their share in the market. The combined versions of Android Jelly Bean powers 12.8 percent of all active Android devices, Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread have 1.2 percent share each. Froyo commands a negligible 0.1 percent of the market share.
When will OEMs start rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat?
With this information, we can clearly see the rollout of Android 7.0 Nougat is sluggish. Some OEMs have already started rolling out the latest Android software to some of their latest models, but there is a large group of companies yet to initiate the process.
Huawei is all set to begin Android Nougat release for select handsets in Q1 2017, while Sony, Motorola, and HTC are on time with their rollout schedule. Google's Nexus and Pixel series are the first ones to receive the latest software, and it is safe to say that the majority of the 0.4 percent of the devices running Android Nougat is the courtesy of those phones.
