Supported devices for RWD

[coljung]

Hi there,

I am currently trying to gather a basic list of devices supported to provide to clients when discussing RWD.

I know there are way too many devices available right now and it is close to impossible to provide support for all of them. I’m also aware that while Android OS is the most widely know, there is a big range of devices that use it. For iOS devices, on the other hand, the choice is much simpler:

– iPhone4 ( 4S as well )
– iPhone 5
– iPad2 -3, mini iPad.
Having the rest ( iphone3 and iPad1 ) as required in terms of basic functionality.

My issue is what do I include for the rest of devices, Samsung phones , HTC, Google Nexus ? Ideally I would have maybe 3 or 4 devices that would cover the non Apple devices.

Any suggestions ? If it matters, I’m in Canada. ( im not considering including blackberry on my list btw ).

One last point, I’m aware that RWD done properly, should adapt to the device regardless of the model, but i can’t give clients a list including all possible devices, as I know there are always minor differences and it becomes troublesome to start making sure all work as expected. So, giving them a list that covers the ones with the biggest share / more standard should cover it.

Thanks in advance.

[Paulie_D]

>I am currently trying to gather a basic list of devices supported to provide to clients when discussing RWD.

>One last point, I’m aware that RWD done properly, should adapt to the device regardless of the mode

Do you see the contradiction here? Why do you need to give them a list?

RWD doesn’t care about device support…it cares about viewport size.

If I was to provide a list it would be by OS &/or Browser and not device and that’s a much shorter list.

[iknowdavehouse]

You could be shooting yourself in the foot listing out devices – it’s so hard for a lot of non-web folk to understand the concept of RWD outside of device talk I know… but they really need to understand the concept of RWD and not talk about the “iPad version” or the “Android handset version”….It’ll cause you a lot of problems down the road.

I’d stick to talking about current smartphone & tablets and make sure you have examples of RWD working so they really understand that it’s the same page.

[coljung]

Hi,

I do see the contradiction, but the main reason why i’m asking is because more often than not, clients want it work on their ‘iphone and ipad’. Its easier to talk to them in terms they understand which is device wise. Telling them that iOS5-6 and Android 4.2 doesn’t work with all clients.

In case I followed you approach then, what mobile OS would you recommend then, other than iOS5 – 6, and Android 3 – 4 ?

As a side note, it was my director who requested a list of devices to have. I will bring up the fact that having an OS list would be a better and more convenient approach.

Thanks again.

[Paulie_D]

>it was my director who requested a list of devices to have

Which goes to show that he should leave it to you to design the website.

Frankly, I would go no further than IOS/Android/WinMobile.

As I said, barring a few minor rendering differences (which are browser related and not OS) all websites will look the same regardless.

If a client asks “Will it work on my device” the answer is “Yes (except for Blackberry)”.

[ChrisP]

> If I was to provide a list it would be by OS &/or Browser and not device and that’s a much shorter list. – @Paulie_D

+1

[Senff]

Once you view the site in your browser, resize your browser window slowly. Make sure that the site always looks good on every single size between 300 and, say, 1300. Once that’s done, you can be sure that it will look good on every mobile device that uses any of the resolutions in between that.

This way you create breakpoints based on your design — not based on device resolutions.

[coljung]

I think I did not explain myself very well.

I do create my RWD sites based on breaking points related to design / content, independently of what devices will be used to browse the site.

Now, my director/bosses want a list to provide to clients and also for QA to test our sites. This list wont affect the way i do my websites. As stated before, RWD done properly should adapt to most screens regardless if done properly, which is what I try to achieve.

The basic list I’m looking for will help them ( director/bosses ) narrow the amount of devices to be tested per project.

thanks again.

[Paulie_D]

>Now, my director/bosses want a list to provide to clients

Sounds like you need to educate the directors who can, in turn, educate the client.

[Paulie_D]

In fact, on thinking about it the answer would be to tell them what you **don’t** support.

[coljung]

I will start pushing for a more agnostic approach regarding this.

But what about QA testing. I would still like to try to narrow a list of specific devices for them to test on. If I leave it up to them, they will report bugs on very random devices that I dont even have access to ( recentyl i got a couple of bugs reported for Sony Xperia ).

[ChrisP]

@coljung, the Sony Xperia has a WinMo version, and Android version..so this is a perfect example of why it would be better to specify mobile OS over device.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Xperia

[will_wallace85]

If you’re looking to generate a list of devices, you should do some market research for the site/app youre developing and find out what their device of choice is. We can all site here and throw out “iphone 4+ a few android devices ect ect” but every market sector will have different numbers, and every geographic sector will have different numbers.

I recently launched one website for a print design company where we specifically paid attention to iphone 5 per the clients request based on market research which showed that was 90% of his target demo, then turned around and optimized a wholesale vintage auto parts shop for iphone 3G based on the fact that somehow that was over 50% of his mobile user base.

With that in mind, both sites still display well on most devices, but its your target market that will determine what devices you should pay specific attention to.

One final note, if you want to take the easiest way out of this, just find out what the most used devices are and have that be your list. [2012 stats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_phones#2012 “2012 stats”)

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