Is Ice Cream Sandwich the new Gingerbread?

Gingerbread, your reigning days are numbered as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean aim to take your crown! For the first time in recent months the two year-old operating system drops under 50 percent in the Android distribution charts, based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the 14 days ending January 3.

On November 13, Google released its latest treat in the candy jar, Android 4.2. Little under two months later, the second Jelly Bean iteration claims a distribution level of 1.2 percent of all green droid devices, a number 50 percent higher compared to the previous figures released in early December. The significant growth can be attributed to sales and software upgrades for Nexus-branded devices such as the Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Nexus 7, respectively.

Nearly seven months after the search giant unveiled it, Android 4.1 now runs on 9.0 percent of all green droid devices, an increase of 52.54 percent over the previous data set released by Google. As newer Nexus-branded smartphones and tablets migrate to the second Jelly Bean iteration, the growth of Android 4.1 is now sustained by sales of popular models such as the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II as well as the HTC DROID DNA, among others.

Ice Cream Sandwich, versions 4.0.3 to 4.0.4, reached a distribution level of 29.1 percent among Android devices, a number marginally higher by 1.6 percentage points compared to the previous figures released in early December. It is worth noting that Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean now run on nearly 40 percent of all green droid devices, an ever-increasing number month on month.

Even though some manufacturers announced upgrades to Android 4.1, the fact is a high number of devices will be stuck running Ice Cream Sandwich either due to ending support or untimely Jelly Bean update schedules. As it stands, Android 4.0 will rule the newer sweets for quite some time before eventually "melting".

Honeycomb now amounts for an abysmal 1.5 percent distribution level, with versions 3.1 and 3.2 accounting for 0.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. The former variant shows a consistent distribution for the past months, while the latter lost an insignificant 0.1 percent compared to the previous data set.

It goes without saying that Gingerbread is yet again the most popular sweet in the family. With a distribution level of 47.6 percent for versions 2.3 to 2.3.2 and 2.3.3 to 2.3.7 combined, the two year old operating system lost 3.2 percentage points since early December.

Android 2.2 to 1.6 now account for 11.6 percent of all green droid devices, and for the first time Android 1.5 Cupcake vanished from the distribution charts. The most popular among the older green droid operating systems, bar Gingerbread, remains Froyo that still runs on 9 percent of all Android devices.

As happens with every new Android distribution chart, there is a clear tendency for older versions to make way for newer treats. Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean are slowly approaching Gingerbread, but judging by the historical data set collected during a 14-day period ending on January 1, 2013 the king will continue to keep its crown for the first few months of 2013 at least.

What is your Android device running at the moment? Will it receive further upgrades?