6
Android SDK Versions and Compatibility

Now that you have gotten your feet wet with GeoQuiz, let’s review some background material about the different versions of Android. The information in this chapter is important to have under your belt as you continue with the book and develop more complex and realistic apps.

Android SDK Versions

Table 6.1 shows the SDK versions, the associated versions of the Android firmware, and the percentage of devices running them as of December 2016.

Table 6.1  Android API levels, firmware versions, and percent of devices in use

API level Codename Device firmware version % of devices in use
24 Nougat 7.0 0.4
23 Marshmallow 6.0 26.3
22 Lollipop 5.1 23.2
21 5.0 10.8
19 KitKat 4.4 24.0
18 Jelly Bean 4.3 1.9
17 4.2 6.4
16 4.1 4.5
15 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0.3, 4.0.4 1.2
10 Gingerbread 2.3.3 - 2.3.7 1.2
8 Froyo 2.2 0.1

(Note that versions of Android with less than 0.1% distribution are omitted from this table.)

Each codenamed release is followed by incremental releases. For instance, Ice Cream Sandwich was initially released as Android 4.0 (API level 14). It was almost immediately replaced with incremental releases culminating in Android 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 (API level 15).

The percentage of devices using each version changes constantly, of course, but the figures do reveal an important trend: Android devices running older versions are not immediately upgraded or replaced when a newer version is available. As of December 2016, more than 15% of devices are still running Jelly Bean or an earlier version. Android 4.3 (the last Jelly Bean update) was released in October 2013.

(If you are curious, the data in Table 6.1 is kept current at developer.android.com/​about/​dashboards/​index.xhtml.)

Why do so many devices still run older versions of Android? Most of it has to do with heavy competition among Android device manufacturers and US carriers. Carriers want features and phones that no other network has. Device manufacturers feel this pressure, too – all of their phones are based on the same OS, but they want to stand out from the competition. The combination of pressures from the market and the carriers means that there is a bewildering array of devices with proprietary, one-off modifications of Android.

A device with a proprietary version of Android is not able to run a new version of Android released by Google. Instead, it must wait for a compatible proprietary upgrade. That upgrade might not be available until months after Google releases its version, if it is ever available at all. Manufacturers often choose to spend resources on newer devices rather than keeping older ones up to date.

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