Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean get a big bump from the holidays

Android market share numbers for the end of December have just gone up on the Android Developers site, and the story is much the same as it was last month: Android 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 continue to gain ground over older versions of the software. Version 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, still powers the majority of the Android devices that accessed Google Play in the last two weeks of December, but its share has finally fallen below 50 percent (it now sits at 47.4 percent, down from 50.7 percent last month).

Now, 39.3 percent of all Android users are running Ice Cream Sandwich or newer, with 10.2 percent of those users running one of the two Jelly Bean versions. Some of this sizable uptick—up from 34.2 percent just last month—doubtlessly reflects the number of Android phones and tablets given as gifts over the holidays. Though Android 4.2 is still confined largely to Google's Nexus devices, it's rare to find a new device that isn't at least running Ice Cream Sandwich.