Google announced Android O and some of its features at Google I/O 2017 back in May and Project Treble caught some attention. For those that aren’t aware, Project Treble is meant to reduce fragmentation in Android, the Android O team says smartphones with Android O will come with Treble enabled out-of-the-box. According to Android Police, “Project Treble will introduce a low-level Vendor Implementation on Android devices that interacts directly with the hardware. Unlike current updates, OEMs won't need to update drivers for the hardware in each OTA. The updated Android framework just plugs into the Vendor Implementation, which is designed to be forward-compatible. That would allow OEMs to get updates done quicker, even long after a chipset maker stops supporting the hardware”.
According to Android Police, the Pixel and Pixel XL won’t be the only smartphones to get Project Treble. Other smartphones could get the update too. The partnership between Qualcomm and Google with the Snapdragon 821 helps the Pixel get the Project Treble update. If the implementation of Treble goes smoothly, it will be a boon in helping with the fragmentation issue that Google faces with Android smartphones today. Android Nougat's market share has reached 13.5 percent. Android 7.0 Nougat is used by 12.3 percent users while 1.2 percent users are running on Android 7.1.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow which is nearly two years old now continues to lead the pack with a market share of 32.3 percent. It is followed by Android 5.0 Lollipop with a share of 29.2 percent. The age-old Android 4.4 KitKat is powering 16 percent devices and Android Jelly Bean is used by around 7.6 percent.