Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Tablets are causing a ruckus for three different reasons. First, they typically enable users to surf in either portrait or landscape mode, which means they effectively have to be treated as two different devices. Second, tablets have now split into two classes of size (7 inch and 10 inch). And third, the technology is advancing with the new screens to pack in more pixels for every inch of display.

The new iPad packs 264 pixels into every inch of its retina display. Although that produces some amazing pictures and movies, it also means a screen with more than 1,500 pixels packed into less than 7 inches of space. The result is fonts and images that are really high quality but really tiny.

Here are some of the screen resolutions of the top tablets:

• The new iPad: 2048×1536 (10-inch class).
• iPad 2: 1024×768 (10-inch
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  class).

• Kindle Fire: 1024×600 (7-inch class).
• Kindle Fire HD: 1280×800 (7-inch class).
• Barnes & Noble Nook HD: 1440 x 900 (7-inch class).
• Google/Asus Nexus 7: 1280×800 (7-inch class).
• Motorola Xoom: 1280×800 (10-inch class).
• Galaxy Tab: 1024×600 (7-inch class).
• Galaxy Tab 10.1: 1280×800 (10-inch class).

Starting to see the problem? Do you think a screen that looks good on a 10.1-inch Motorola Xoom is going to look as good on a 7-inch Nexus 7 display, even if they have the same resolution? The same goes for the New Galaxy Tab 10.1 versus the new Kindle Fire HD. Even if you designed your site to work well on the iPad, you are dealing with two dramatically different screen sizes in terms of pixels. According to Pew Research, 22 percent of Americans now own a tablet of some sort. The result is that unless retailers start to take the time and money to optimize their content for all of these different platforms, the Web is going to look bad to more people than it is going to look good.

This creates a bigger problem than Web developers faced during the 1990s with the lack of browser standards. Each major player in the browser world had certain features that would work with it but not its competitors. Developers and designers were forced to either play to the lowest common denominator and have a crappy looking site or write some spaghetti code that said, “if you are on Internet Explorer version 5, do this, and if you are on Firefox do that,” etc. It was a nightmare for all involved, especially those doing the testing.

Based on Frank’s research, it appears that most retailers have decided their customer experience will be better served on a 7-inch tablet with their mobile site versus their full Web site. The problem is that the mobile sites are designed for people “on the go.” And just because someone is accessing your Web site from a 7-inch tablet, doesn’t mean he or she isn’t sitting on the couch watching The Voice.

Retailers need to wake up and realize that one of the biggest keys to customers’ experiences with their brand electronically is the how well they optimize content for those customers. Creating both a full Web site and a mobile Web site is no longer enough. Retailers have to create content that is designed for tablets. They have to create content that is portrait or landscape aware. And they have to adapt to the market changes.

What do you think? If you disagree (or even, heaven forbid, agree), please comment below or send me a private message. Or check out the Twitter discussion on @todd_michaud.