A report out the other day by an industry group that tracks shipments of flat panel screens (TVs to LDC monitors) has an interesting statistic in that the screen size for mobile phones has increased 38% in the past three years. While the group took the average of mobile phone screen sizes, I took a look at the top 2 phones back in 2010 and now. In the case of Apple, the iPhone 4 (June, 2010) had a 3.5-in, 640 x 960 display while the just released iPhone 5 has a 4-in, 640 × 1,136 display. Equally, in the case of Android, the Galaxy Nexus S had a 4-in, 800 × 480 display (late 2010) while the Samsung Galaxy S III now has a 4.8-in, 1,280 × 720 display.
While the display size between the phones I examined does not quite fit in the 38% range, what it does open up is a wealth of new possibilities in business-based mobile applications. I would still be reluctant to view an Excel spreadsheet on a mobile phone or demand that a user of a business-based mobile app do so. However, as a mobile developer, the screen sizes of the mainstream, high-end mobile phones opens up mobile applications that had previously been designed with only tablets in mind. It is not only the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, but the popularity of the 7-in tablet market with the Google Nexus 7 and the eagerly anticipated Apple iPad Mini that allows greater flexibility in terms of user interface layout and “just how data can I put onto this screen?”.
With the challenge of a multitude of display sizes across the phone, 7-in and 10-in categories, Responsive Design becomes more important than ever, whether it is a native, hybrid, or web-based mobile application. No longer can a mobile developer work towards the 80/20 rule in terms of display size because of the wide variety that is now commonplace. While Responsive Design will not completely insulate one from the diversity of mobile devices, it does acknowledge that unpredictability is going to happen (the 7-in market did not exist a year ago) and allows a developer to work in a “future-friendly” fashion.
Mobile Display Screens: Go Big!
by Perry Hoekstra on October 17th, 2012 | ~ minute read
