Richard Strucke

There is something beautiful about that title. Something that sings in your ear. Maybe it’s a bit of magic you had never thought possible, or maybe, just maybe, it’s something come true which you had wished for your whole professional life, that is, if you are a web designer from the 90′s.

While listening to 5by5′s Big Web Show I ran across the site for the interviewee, Andy Rutledge, which lead to a post about Big Brand 1080px Design and going wider than the current 960px web design layout craze. Somewhere in the post I came across the w3schools browser stats and that’s where it slapped me in the face..

“Today, most computers are using a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels or higher”.

Initially you might say, “big whoop, I’ve been using a 1024 or higher resolution for years”.. Agreeingly, so have I. And yes, we’ll always need to be mindful of other/smaller devices (mobile, tablet, etc) viewing our webpages — not only computers. The difference now is more than 90% of ALL users are using a 1024 or higher resolution as well, and that’s great news. We can finally, and now confidently, shake that 1024px layout monkey off of our back.

The trend of increasing monitor sizes and resolutions will continue to grow, and if you listen closely, every once in a while you will hear a muffled cheer at each milestone. First it was the initial hurdle of 800px wide, and now the even larger 1024px wide resolution. Known or not to the outside world, this is indeed and once again an exciting time for web designers.

I’m making a prediction: Within 5 years the avarage user will be working on a “smart” phone/device as their primary computer.

One caveat, replacing laptops and desktops with a smart phone in the workplace will take quite a bit longer. However, I’m betting a phone or similar small computing device will be the average users next laptop or desktop replacement.

Bold words? Maybe. But after purchasing, owning, and exploring the iPhone 4 with Apple iOS I’ve come to realize I am one cable away from getting real work done on my phone. The iPhone 4 uses the same high powered processor and embedded bluetooth wireless keyboard capabilities as the iPad. Therefor, the only barrier left is plugging the iPhone into a monitor. Fire up a larger screen monitor and suddenly you are churning out your everyday work — email, documents, spreadsheets, photo manipulation — or just about anything else you can dream up with an app. Obviously, the key here would be for apple to scale the screen to match the resolution and layout to the monitor, but they’ve already proved that is an easy task as accomplished in the iPad.

When the sync-to-monitor cable appears (not just TV cable), and once people realize a phone possesses all the processing power that most people really need, you can kiss you laptop, netbook, and desktop goodbye. This also means the consumer computer industry will also be transformed, again, but that’s a post for another day. In the meantime, keep an eye out for that cable.