Prediction: iPad Could Go From 4:3 to 3:2 Aspect Ratio [Updated]
You may remember Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies, from a few interviews we did with him awhile back concerning the science of mobile handset displays and their faulty brightness controls. Now, the respected display scientist is offering his own predictions about the future of the iPad.
With the rumors circulating that the iPad 2 will come with a beefier, higher resolution display, Dr. Soneira weighed in with his guess for how the next generation of Apple tablets could share aspect ratio as the iPhone. "The hardest thing for any app [developer] is writing for two different screen shapes and aspect ratios," says Dr. Soneira. "3:2 fits well with camera photos and is an excellent compromise width for widescreen HDTV and movies." He adds that any app written for the original 4:3 1024x768 iPad would just automatically show up centered on the new 3:2 1152x768 screen with a 0.26-inch border on each side.
That means app developers will no longer write code for two types of aspect ratios; instead, the iPhone and iPad would have the same screen shape. That could also mean that you'll no longer have to double the size of your iPhone-only applications and have them look blurry and stretched--the idea of "seperate" applications might be omitted entirely! While this may not happen with this year's iPad update--and we won't really find out what's really brewing until tomorrow's Apple iPad 2 event--we actually like the sound of this. If anything, this is something Apple should consider for future iterations of the tablet device. Readers, what do you think?
teejaysplace
March 01, 2011 at 1:10pm
We know that Apple drafted and mocked and stretched and measured and calipered and weighed the original iPad before it's release, ultimately deciding on what they felt was the ideal size, shape and ratio. Given their attention to detail, it seems nearly certain that this was among the primary debates during the initial development phase. If hey change it, therefore, it seems likely that something would have to tip the scales in favour of 3:2 that had not done so before.
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