Android Lollipop still straggling, adoption barely passes 5% in March

Google has today updated the Android distribution data, and it looks like Android Lollipop—the Mountain View company’s latest mobile OS, which was released in November of last year—has now passed the 5% milestone in terms of adoption. In February we saw that number hit just 1.6%, and last month the data was updated to show usage at 3.3%…

KitKat also saw an increase from 40.9% up to 41.4%, while all three listed flavors of Jelly Bean saw decreases across the board. Both Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich both saw decreases as well, but good-ol’ Froyo is still holding on to 0.4% of the market. Lollipop is seeing 5% for version 5.0, while the newer version 5.1 is now on 0.4% of devices.

Clearly these Lollipop adoption numbers are pretty underwhelming, especially considering the notoriously fast adoption that Apple has enjoyed over the last several years with iOS. iOS 8 may not have been adopted as quickly as iOS 7 was, but it still managed to hit an impressive 77% in March ahead of this month’s Apple Watch launch.

It’s not exactly surprising to see that Lollipop has barely been adopted, as we’re still sharing with you almost on a daily basis updates to flagship smartphones across many carriers that are only just now being released. This will surely continue into the coming months, and we’ll probably see some phones getting Lollipop even after Google has announced the next major version of its mobile OS—which should happen in late May.