Google published the latest platform breakdown for its Android Market users, with 55.9 percent of users now using a Gingerbread (Android 2.3.x) version of the OS.

Based on its analysis of visitors in the store in the two weeks to 3 January 2012, after Gingerbread the most popular platform is Froyo (Android 2.2), which accounted for 30.4 percent of visits.

The chart also saw the early signs of Ice Cream Sandwich adoption, with this version of the platform used by 0.6 percent of visitors – the same as the aging Android 1.5. However, so far Ice Cream Sandwich has not been widely adopted by manufacturers, which accounts for its low penetration.

The Honeycomb version of Android, which targets tablet devices, is used by 3.3 percent of visitors.

Google provides details of Android platform penetration in order to enable developers to decide which platforms to target. The operating system uses APIs which are forward-compatible, meaning any app written for Android 2.2, for example, will be supported by later versions of the platform.

Targeting Android 2.2 would mean that an app can be used by 89.8 percent of devices visiting Android Market.