Google's latest platform distribution numbers for February are out, and Android 5.0 Lollipop (and 5.1) has nearly caught up to Android 4.4 KitKat in adoption. Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which still has yet to roll out on many popular Android manufacturers' devices, continues its slow climb while Apple's iOS 9 is already on the vast majority of iPhones and iPads.

As of February, Android Lollipop versions 5.0 and 5.1 are running on more than 34 percent of all connected Android devices, pushing Google's major "Material Design" upgrade close to the same level as Android 4.4 KitKat.

That candy-themed version of Android, which was released nearly three years ago, now runs 35.5 percent of devices in Google's domain. The even older Android Jelly Bean (versions 4.1 - 4.3) now remains on less than a quarter of all Android devices.

As for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the latest Google operating system pushed past the oldest mobile OS that Google still keeps track of -- the comparatively ancient Android Froyo, released in 2010, which fell to 0.1 percent.

Android M gained 0.5 percent to a new high in February of 1.2 percent, which is progress, but still places it far behind nearly every version of Android since Gingerbread.

Still, the distribution of Android M is likely to pick up quickly as OEMs begin rolling out updates to their devices this year and more new smartphones are released running Marshmallow out of the box. For the sake of comparison, at about the same time after its release in 2014, the current reigning version, Android KitKat, had only reached 1.8 percent of devices accessing Google Play. Adoption picked up quickly soon after.

Meanwhile, Apple's much less diverse hardware ecosystem, which gives the company an insurmountable advantage when it comes to preventing operating system fragmentation, yet again produced huge adoption rates for its latest, iOS 9.

According to the late January update released by Apple, a full 76 percent of iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. Apple's previous release, iOS 8, only holds 17 percent of Apple devices now, and all earlier versions of iOS run just 7 percent.

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