May 14, 2014
Android 4.4 aka KitKat has now been deployed to Android devices. This latest version of Google’s mobile platform is now gaining immense popularity. The Android Developer Dashboard Website, which features regular updates on Android’s share of the mobile market, has stated that KitKat is now running on 8.5 percent of Android devices. This figure indicates a 37 percent increase from April, which had shown that 5.3 percent of Android smartphones and tablets were running KitKat.
Incidentally, this Website is targeted at helping Android app developers understand the popularity quotient of each of Google’s mobile OS versions, so that they can optimize app experience for those users.
While Jelly Bean is clearly the most favored OS version yet, it is rather surprising to note that Gingerbread still claims a large portion of its users’ hearts, with Ice Cream Sandwich coming into 3rd position. The rise of KitKat is not very steep. However, it is evidently gaining acceptance and appreciation from the masses.
Google Actively Pushes KitKat Forward
Android 4.4 is not apparently very different from its immediate predecessor. However, at a closer look, it is definitely power-packed with many more features, which will benefit app developers, mobile users and even the enterprise sector to a large extent. Google has been pushing this version ahead, getting developers to notice its special features and finally adapt to this new OS.
A couple of months back, there had been a rumor of a leaked internal memo from Google, which supposedly planned on banning manufacturers from introducing their handsets on older versions of the Android operating system. Via the memo, the company is believed to have stated that each of its OS releases would support a ‘GMS (Google Mobile Services) approval window’, which would close after 9 months after the next Android version release was made available to the public. The company may be planning this move with the intention of curbing the ever-present issue of fragmentation of Android OS’.
Android KitKat has been cleverly designed; in a way so as to support state-of-the-art devices and the lower-end smartphones and tablets as well. This new version considerably reduces memory needs and so, it can support a range of many more devices, including entry-level devices, which feature very little RAM.
Stipulating the above-mentioned condition to device manufacturers will help the company deal effectively with fragmentation; thereby automatically ensuring that the latest, most feature-rich version is adopted within the shortest time-frame possible. This will in turn result in quicker and stronger evolution of the mobile platform.
This move would benefit app developers as well, who would have to mainly focus only on the major available Android OS version, instead of struggling to make their apps compatible with multiple versions; running on multiple devices.
In Conclusion
Google is most definitely moving in the right direction with its speedy deployment of KitKat on all devices. The new version obviously contains the right mix of features to take the company way ahead and offer formidable enough competition to rivals such as Apple and Microsoft.
But when all is said and done, will this version set the bar for the future? Will Android 4.4 blaze a brave new trail? Only time will tell….