For a few years now we have been wondering if we should
reconfigure our website to make it smart-phone friendly.
Smart-phones have small screens, typically 4” to 5”, and a
lower resolution, which means that sideways scrolling is
needed to view our pages. Looking at website statistics for
the year 2013, only 3.3% of hits were definitely from mobile
devices (includes both smart-phones and tablets). We don't
know if there is little demand from smart-phone users, or if
they are just put off looking at our site by the pain of
reading our pages. Though 3.3% is an increase on 2012's 2.0%
we still don't think this a big enough proportion to justify
reconfiguring our website.
Meanwhile sales of tablet computers in the USA have now
exceeded sales of PCs – both desktops and laptops. Sales of
PCs remained fairly constant from 2010 to 2012, and then
declined over 2013, whereas tablet sales have climbed steadily
from 2010.
Tablets have larger screens than smart-phones, typically 7” to
14”. They usually have touch-screen technology, without a
conventional keyboard. Many tablets have screen resolutions of
1366 x 768. Pageant's web pages were designed with a width of
610 pixels, though there are float down menus on the right,
which can add up to 250 pixels. (This decision was taken in
the mists of time when printing wider web pages would result
in their right hand edges being lost.) As a consequence, all
of Pageant's pages will display well on tablets in either
orientation, with no need to scroll horizontally to read the
text.
The big news over Christmas was that sales of tablets rocketed
both here and in the USA. It seems that most of these tablets
were for children. Young children find the tablet and its
touch-screen operation intuitive. Tablet prices have tumbled,
and it's now possible to buy one for £80. It is claimed that
about half of UK households now have a tablet, and this
proportion will increase with falling prices. Kids will now
grow up used to a large screen mobile device. Though they will
quickly acquire a phone, they probably won't abandon their
tablet. Most children aged 8-13 already have three or more
media devices of their own. If, as predicted, tablets become
very widely used, then we don't have an imperative to
reconfigure the website.
Further Reading