OpenSignalMaps Finds Nearly 4,000 Versions Of Android

If you look at all the different ways people can modify their Android software and all the various kinds of hardware and operating systems, do you know how many different platforms you'll find? Apparently, there are nearly 4,000 "distinct" Android devices in the wild right now. You read that right – four thousand. You think iOS has that many?

That data came from a company called OpenSignalMaps, which has collected information from 681,900 Android devices through its app. So what this means is that of those 680,000+ devices, there are 3,997 that are unique. The most popular one, for example, is the Samsung Galaxy S II, with 61,389 people owning that phone and running the same version of Android.

So how are there so many? "One complication is that custom ROMs can overwrite the android.build.MODEL variable that we use for the device model," the company noted. As a matter of fact, "A staggering 1,363 device models appear only once in our database." If you drill down to the main factor, the main version number, Android seems to be more fragmented than ever. The most common version of the OS is Gingerbread, but even as the #1 version, it's only powering 55.4% of devices.

[via PC Mag]