Google released its monthly Android adoption numbers today, and there’s more good news for Jelly Bean. As you would expect, the platform is continuing to grow, reaching a quarter of Android devices for the first time since its release nine months ago.

Google’s latest Jelly Bean platform has been available for just under eight months now, but like its predecessors, it’s been slow to make its way to Android smartphones and tablets. That’s not Google’s fault — it’s own Nexus devices get the latest releases almost as soon as they’re available — but Android hardware manufacturers are, unfortunately, notoriously slow at updated their devices.

Nevertheless, Jelly Bean’s market share is growing. According to Google’s latest data, it’s now installed on 16.5% of devices.

It’s taken some time, but Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is finally beginning to claim a notable share of devices. Almost six months after its release, the software has been installed on 10.2% of smartphones and tablets, while Gingerbread’s share slowly diminishes. The vast majority of users are still running Gingerbread, Android 2.3, but the software share has dropped below the 50% mark for the first time in over a year.

While I should be used to this by now, I just can’t help but feel depressed every time a new Android distribution chart comes out. You see, way too many devices are left running outdated versions of Android and it’s really the average consumer who ends up getting the shaft.

The latest Android Distribution numbers are out and not much has changed. Timely updates, or updates at all for that matter, continue to be a thorn in Android’s side. No matter who we point fingers at, the fact remains, not enough devices are running the most current version of Android. In fact, more than 50% of Android devices accessing the Google Play store are still running Gingerbread — an almost 2-year old version of Android.