Android in January: Gingerbread nears 60%, ICS gets 1%

The Google developers just published the updated charts, showing the version distribution of the platform in December. Gingebread keeps extending its lead at the top and now powers 58.6% of all droids - a 3.1 percent point increase compared to the previous month.

Froyo comes in a comfortable second, despite slipping 2.6 percent points to 27.8% share. At this point most of the phones that were meant to get Gingerbread updates have already gotten those, so the Froyo share will probably only be influenced by new sales and phones reaching the end of their lives from now on.

Android 2.1 Eclair is the third most popular release of the platform - its market share diminished by 0.9 percent points, but 7.6% were enough for the bronze medal.

Honeycomb comes in next, its three revisions gaining just 0.1 percent point this month, but still securing 3.4% market share.

Android's latest and greatest - 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is only the fifth most widespread release of the popular platform. Still, it gained 0.4 percent points of market share in January - not bad for a platform that's only officially available on a couple of smartphones and one slate.

Version	Market Share, October	Market Share, November	Change
1.5 Cupcake	0.6%	0.6%	0.0
1.6 Donut	1.1%	1.0%	▼0.1
2.1 Eclair	8.5%	7.6%	▼0.9
2.2 Froyo	30.4%	27.8%	▼2.6
2.3 Gingerbread	0.6%	0.5%	▼0.1
2.3.3 Gingerbread	54.9%	58.1%	▲3.2
3.0 Honeycomb	0.1%	0.1%	0.0
3.1 Honeycomb	1.5%	1.4%	▼0.1
3.2 Honeycomb	1.7%	1.9%	▲0.2
4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich	0.3%	0.3%	0.3
4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich	0.3%	0.7%	▲0.4

The Android 1.6 Donut and 1.5 Cupcake releases are still on the map, though with shares of 1% and 0.6% respectively, they are bound to disappear sooner, rather than later.