It’s a long way to the top for Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop, which account for a combined market share of 18.1 percent, according to the latest OS breakdown figures posted by Google. Meanwhile, last year’s flavor of the day, 4.4 KitKat, rules supreme with an unflinching 39 percent of the pie.

Clearly, nine months aren’t enough for a new operating system to gain prevalence over preceding Android versions. In all probability, an additional three months won’t make a great difference either, so it’s safe to presume Lollipop will remain in the minority as M finally spreads its wings this fall.

But let’s also look on the bright side. At least Android 5.0 and 5.1 added to their unremarkable stakes between June and August. Two months ago, the former logged an 11.6 percent share, while the latter sat at a pithy 0.8 percent.

The numbers have jumped to 15.5 and 2.6 percentage points respectively, and the gross total is up a decent 5.7 percent. Assuming Lollipop can keep up the moderate growth pace, it will take Google and its hardware partners an extra seven months or so to boost the Material Designed-software’s scores near KitKat’s current levels.

What’s impressive about version 4.4 is it essentially retained its commanding tally from back in June. It even surged 0.1 percent, from 39.2 to 39.3. Needless to highlight L’s rise and KK’s stability were reported at the expense of ancient Android iterations like Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich.

Android 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 lost 1.7, 1.6 and 0.5 percentage points respectively, plunging to 13, 15.9 and 4.7 marks resulting in an overall tab of 33.6 percent for Jelly Bean — which is still respectable, given the advanced age of the three OS builds.

Ice Cream Sandwich dropped from 5.1 to 4.1 percent, Gingerbread moved one step closer to extinction, with a 4.6 share, and Froyo refuses to die, clinging on to a 0.3 percent quota.

• SourceAndroid Developers