Every month Android Developers give us a better idea of Android distribution. Releasing stats and charts to show us which versions of Android have been accessing the Play Store. This is helpful for a variety of reasons, number one being support. Developers get an idea of which versions of Android they should be concentrating their efforts on and whether or not it’s worth the extra work to support them all. The latest numbers are out and remain disappointing.

What do I mean, disappointing? I mean, there are still way too many devices stuck on a version of Android that is almost two years old and not enough running current iterations. If you take a look at the latest numbers, despite gains in current version of Android, Gingerbread is still the majority leader with 55.8% of devices running this aging OS version.

Ice Cream Sandwich has been out for almost a year now, yet less than 25% of Android devices are running it. And forget about Jelly Bean — Android’s most recent iteration — because less than 2% of Android devices are rocking this tasty version.

I can certainly understand low numbers on the Jelly Bean front, but to have less than 25% of device on Ice Cream Sandwich is simply unacceptable. It’s a shame because it’s the carriers and OEMs that are to blame, however, the average consumer has no idea about such things.

If consumers were better educated about Android, they’d know that carriers and OEMs are the only reasons why their device doesn’t have all the great features that their friends Nexus device has. While I see OEMs getting better at updating their devices, I don’t see carriers changing anytime soon. Therefore, I will continue to suggest buying a Nexus device over any other (if updates are important to you).

If updates continue at their current rate, last year’s Android 4.0 will make it onto 50% of Android devices by this time next year. Exactly…

• SourceAndroid Developers