Figures suggest Apple devices more up to date than Android equivalents

Apple says it's charted the fragmentation of its iOS operating system and found its devices are generally more up to date than those of its U.S. rival Google. Apple has begun charting the state of its operating system fragmentation, as Google has been doing, with the result that for all intents and purposes there isn't any, VentureBeat reported Friday. Ninety-three percent of all iOS devices are already running the latest version, iOS 6, introduced last year. In comparison, the most adopted version of Android, with 36.5 percent, is 2.3 Gingerbread, introduced in 2010. The latest version, Jelly Bean 4.2.2, has only a 33 percent share. Android is infamous for being splintered among countless devices, each running a slightly different permutation of the OS created by manufacturers and carriers with little incentive to offer timely updates. With that fragmentation comes frustration for app developers, who must struggle to code and test apps that function as intended on every version of the Android phone and other Android devices. While Google has a larger share of the smartphone market, with so many devices running 3-year-old versions of Android, Apple's numbers suggest its market share -- at least for operating systems -- is more up to date.