As many Android phones users can attest, cool new apps often aren't available in the Google Play Store as quickly as they're available for iPhone users. If Android owners feel frustrated, though, they can blame it on the operating system's fragmentation. Because Google lets phone makers use the operating system for free, they can make whatever modifications to it they want.
Business Insider recently stopped by the offices of Quip, a collaborative productivity startup run by former Facebook CTO Bret Taylor. Here's what you see right at the entrance:
Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider
Some of the different devices Quip tests on.
Quip wants to make sure its product looks gorgeous and works perfectly on all different devices, so the team's developers have to test on - and tailor the system to - a bunch of different phones and tablets. Taylor and his team need to account for different interface styles, keyboards, CPU, and more, and he said that's been a huge frustration over these last few months. Apple, on the other hand, strictly controls its iOS, so developers only need to make sure their apps can adjust to Apple's different screen sizes.
An astounding 18,796 different devices currently run Android, meaning there are tons of tweaks to the OS that developers need to take into consideration if they want to reach the widest audience possible.