I’d say, poor Google, but that would be disingenuous. What I would say is poor users and developers. 

Presented again in the graphic above is the fact that 57.2% of Android devices are running an operating system from two years ago. The worst part, those devices are going no where. They are the phones that the manufacturers cannot or will not upgrade. Not even to last years operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0). The only reason the market share of Gingerbread is shrinking is because of new device sales with newer OS’s (Operating System) are pushing it down.

What effect does this have on the newest version of Android?

The great Nexus 7 has brought with it Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) and sales of that device have bolstered the OS’s share to 1.2%.

Yikes!

I can see why dev’s are letting the Android platform slip from their interest. But where are they going? Keeping one hand firmly in the Apple pie, thats for sure, but where is the other hand?

Windows Mobile? BB10? 

Both of those OS’s have more stringent controls over the devices than Google’s offering. Let’s put this in to a very sharp perspective. Apple, don’t announce their OS numbers like Google do, so we rely on analytics data. From that we can equate that over 80% of Apple’s devices are running it’s latest mobile OS (iOS 5).

Next week see’s the launch of the next iPhone, that will bring with it iOS 6. An operating system that is compatible with their phone released 3 years ago (the 3GS) and the device they launch next week. I struggle to think of an other communicator that can run the latest OS from it’s manufacturer on hardware that’s over 3 years old. (Note I said manufacturer – not people rooting HTC G1’s – although, top work guys that do!)

When looking at the mobile computing sphere, I see one company with massive market share that will be damaging to it’s users, while there’s one company remembering that it’s loyalty that pays. They have over 100 billion notes proving that in the bank! Make’s me think this statement of mine was apt.