Apple may have challenged iPhone developers to figure out how best to support the different screen dimensions of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, something that Android developers have been doing for years.
Publishing analytics startup Parse.ly has released a report highlighting the top screen sizes on which its customers’ readers are consuming news content. Desktops and laptops still dominate overall, but Apple is king of the mobile devices.
Once upon a time, tablets came in one size the 9.7-inch iPad, and and cost anywhere from $500 for a WiFi0-only model to $800 for a 3G model with added storage. When Research in Motion announced its first 7-inch PlayBook tablet, then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously scoffed at their prospects in an epic rant on an Apple earnings call. In the two years since the first iPad, however, tablet configurations and price points have proliferated to the point where manufacturers now feel compelled to offer a full line of devices, hitting multiple screen sizes and multiple price points. Having proved Jobs wrong with the success of its $199, 7-inch Kindle Fire, Amazon is now prepping a 10-inch model, according to supply-chain reports. Samsung offers 7-inch, 9-inch and 10-inch versions of its Galaxy Tab, while Barnes & Noble now offers four different versions of the Nook. Even Apple is now exploring the possibility of introducing a lower-priced, 8-inch iPad Mini to better compete with the Kindle Fire. Not even Steve Jobs called ’em right all the time.
A new report today suggests that Apple may be planning to add more options to its iPhone line. Currently, Cupertino only offers either current gen or last gen tech, in a variety of storage sizes. It’s less of a choice, really, and more of an ultimatum.
With the entire Mac world seemingly focused on the next-generation MacBook and MacBook Pro models, I’d like to put in my $.02 regarding screen sizes.
For all the hope and pie-in-the-sky dreams of new models incorporating some touch screen or tablet characteristics, the latest rumors would seem to confirm that these will still be more or less conventional laptops, used in conventional ways, with conventional applications. Maybe that sounds boring, but let’s not pretend the new models could possibly have been such a paradigm shift that we’d suddenly stop running our usual productivity software on them, OK?
Though I’ve never liked the wide screen form factor, preferring vertical to horizontal space, like most people I modified my work habits to take advantage of the horizontal real estate. This Spring, screen manufacturers began moving more to a 16:9 screen ratio from the current 16:10. Sony, Acer, and Lenovo have already introduced models with such screens, and we may very well see them incorporated in the next generation of Apple laptops as well.
Read More about Laptops, Screen Sizes, and Resolutions, Oh My!
