KitKat adoption more than doubled over the past month as handset makers continue to rollout Android 4.4 updates to their existing devices. By April 1, the platform was installed on 5.3% of Android smartphones and tablets — more than double the 2.5% share it claimed a month ago.

This jump indicates that major Android manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Sony, and HTC are now finally making KitKat upgrades available to a large number of their existing customers. Not only have they been issuing updates to last year’s flagships, but also to midrange offerings as well.

As for previous versions of Android, their share continues to fall. Jelly Bean, still the biggest Android OS, saw its share decrease from 62% in March to 61.2% in April. Ice Cream Sandwich fell from 15.2% to 14.3%, while Honeycomb holds on with just 0.1%.

Gingerbread still has a significant share of 17.8%, but that has dropped from 19%. Android 2.2 Froyo quite incredibly still boasts a 1.1% share, down from 1.2% in March.

KitKat adoption is likely to see a sharp increase again over the coming months as the latest flagships from Samsung, HTC, LG and others goes on sale with Google’s latest operating system pre-installed. HTC’s new One M8 is already available in many markets, while the much-anticipated Galaxy S5 will be available in just a couple of weeks.

• SourceGoogle