Android Ice Cream Sandwich use up over 400% since April

The proportion of Android smartphones and tablets using Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has exploded by more than 400% since April, according to new figures released by Google.

Google’s figures measure the version of Android used to access the Google Play store over a 14-day period prior to the release of the figures.

While an overwhelming majority of Android users continue to use older versions, including 2.2 Froyo (17.3%) and 2.3 Gingerbread (64%), the proportion using 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has grown to 10.9%.

The Ice Cream Sandwich result represents an extraordinary growth in Ice Cream Sandwich use, given that as recently as April it was installed on only 2.4% of Android devices worldwide.

The rapid adoption of Ice Cream Sandwich can be attributed to a number of factors, most notably the release of new Ice Cream Sandwich devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, and the rollout of Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades by major device manufacturers including Samsung and Sony.

While Google released a new version of Android (4.1 Jellybean) during the period the figures were collected, it did not register a statistically significant installed base in the figures.