Android Jelly Bean Tops Gingerbread for First Time

Android Jelly Bean is now the most popular version of Google's mobile operating system, surpassing Gingerbread for the first time.

According to stats published on Monday, Jelly Bean is now running on 37.9 percent of Android devices. Gingerbread lands at 34.1 percent, followed by Ice Cream Sandwich at 23.3 percent.

Last month, approximately 33 percent of Android users were on Jelly Bean, 25.6 percent were on Ice Cream Sandwich, and 36.5 percent were on Gingerbread.

Jelly Bean first topped Ice Cream Sandwich back in May, when approximately 28.4 percent of Android devices were running Jelly Bean, beating out ICS at 27.5 percent.

Very few Android devices are running the earliest versions of the mobile OS at this point. About 3.1 percent are on Froyo, 1.4 percent have Éclair, and 0.1 percent are running Donut (as well as the tablet-centric Honeycomb).

At least two high-profile Android Jelly Bean devices have debuted in recent months: the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One. In late May, Samsung said it had shipped more than 10 million Galaxy S 4 devices, a number that has reportedly now reached 20 million.

Last month, Samsung rival Apple took a swipe at Android fragmentation by adding a pie chart to its website that said 93 percent were using iOS 6, 6 percent were on iOS 5, and 1 percent were on an earlier iOS. The pie chart was clearly a nod to the charts featured on Google's Android developer website.

Google will reportedly unveil the next version of Android, Key Lime Pie, in October, which is the fifth anniversary of the launch of the first Android-based phone, the T-Mobile G1, aka the HTC Dream.

For more, check out PCMag's review of Android 4.2.2.