Google has updated its platform distribution numbers for the 1st week of July, which shows KitKat’s continuous growth and the slow and steady decline of Jelly Bean.

The latest version of Android is now the third most popular distribution of the OS, finally surpassing the three year old Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and is now right behind Android 4.2 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with a market share of 17.9%.

Compared to previous month’s platform distribution data, KitKat’s share grew by 4.2% while the net decline of Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich was 1.9% and 0.9%, respectively.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread still remains the fourth largest version of Android out there, even after 3.5 years of its original release with a market share of 3.5%.

While these numbers don’t really mean much to the end consumers, it is an absolutely vital piece of information for developers, as it will help them in deciding which versions of Android their app should support.

• SourceAndroid Developer Dashboard