Check how many companies are still using old versions of Android

How anxious do you get when your phone doesn’t support the latest software for its platform? Knowing that there are tons of performance updates and security patches you don’t have access to yet? Android fans like us fondly remember the days when Google regularly released statistics on Android platform distribution, giving us a big picture of not only who was running the latest and greatest Android, but also how many were still stuck on a version from years ago. We still get the occasional update via Android Studio, and now we’re checking out what could be the next most useful data point after that, with a report on the state of managed devices from Esper.

Esper shares his latest analysis, looking at how companies in industries like hospitality, education, and retail are using Android devices. That could be phones, POS terminals, or even digital signage. But if it runs on Android and is part of a company’s device management program, Esper is interested.

Before we go any further, it’s worth reminding ourselves to put this data in context. We’re not talking about Pixel phones, where you can go out and install the latest Android beta the day it’s released. Hardware like this is typically tightly controlled, and companies that rely on employees using these devices aren’t going to risk disrupting their entire operational flow to keep up with the latest fixes. That means we’re bound to see some players who don’t meet your expectations. That said, the trends we can see in how these types of delays change over time are a bit more interesting.

Would you guess that Android 10 still dominates the managed device market? Year after year, we see industries investing in software upgrades for their Android devices, but there seems to be a lot of stagnation in the middle ground. We could write off the Android 6 and 7 hardware you see here as doomed to inevitable evolution, but companies using Android 8 seem to have the fire under their feet to upgrade. It’s a trend that’s continued to a lesser extent with Android 10 and 11, with those being new enough that carriers are largely content to stay where they are for now. Really, Android 9 seems to be the most “stuck” here, and it could be another year before companies feel any real pressure to abandon it.

Most of the rest of the information here is very business-specific, but there are a fair few interesting facts to dig into. For example, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that iOS companies are keeping the devices they manage much more up to date. The share of Android devices that support full Google Mobile Services (GMS) has been fairly steady at around 75%, but there’s been a strange increase in companies locking their devices into kiosk mode—meaning they’re essentially becoming single-app devices. While this was already fairly common, this year that percentage jumped from 16% to 37.8% of devices tracked by Esper. Think about that the next time you take for granted the ability to multitask on your phone.