Android 10, the newest version of Google’s mobile operating system, was released in September. With the new release, the search giant is also making it difficult to understand the market share of different versions of Android. The company has stopped updating the Android distribution charts on a regular basis. The last update on May 7, 2019 revealed that Android Pie is behind Android Oreo and Android Nougat in terms of install base. Now, a distribution data from an unexpected source, suggests Android 10 may not have made much dent in the Android universe.
Check out Android OS distribution released by Pornhub
In its annual Year in Review blog, Pornhub has detailed the usage statistics for various versions of Android. As observed by Android Police, Android Pie dominates usage and is followed by Oreo and Nougat. While it does not paint a clear picture of Android OS adoption, it does offer a plausible look. With Pornhub being one of the top 50 sites in global Alexa rankings, the data can be used to interpolate adoption.
Watch: Top 5 smartphones to launch in December 2019
For all of 2019, 48 percent of its Android traffic came from Pie, which was released last year. The second major traffic driver was devices running Android Oreo, which was at 23 percent. At 12 percent, Android Nougat was third while Marshmallow was fourth at 8 percent. Android 10 is behind Lollipop with a share of 2 percent and since it is marked as Q, it does suggest that we are looking at devices running the beta software and Google’s own Pixel devices.
Photo: Pornhub via Android Police
The data from Pornhub only tracks the operating system delivering traffic to the site. Android Dashboard, on the other hand, paints a more clear picture by looking at percentage of active devices running a version of Android. So, we cannot compare the two devices to understand which version of Android is most used right now. However, there is a possibility that Android Pie has overtaken Android Oreo and Android Nougat in terms of install base.
To recall, Google stopped updating Android distribution chart in October 2018 and first major update came in May 2019. A source told Android Police that lack of updates is due to “an unexpected loss of the source of usage data,” but the company has not revealed why it has not returned to monthly updates. There is a possibility that Google is avoiding the constant criticism against fragmentation of its mobile operating system.
