When Apple released iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and the new iMac, they had a chance to set a standard in their product lines for aspect ratio. Right now, they make products under 4 different AR's:
16:9
- iPhone 5
- iPod Touch
- 11" MacBook Air
- iMac
16:10
- 13" MacBook Air
- MacBook Pro
4:3
iPad
iPad Mini
3:2
- iPhone 4/4S
16:9 is great for HD video, and this is where iPhone 5 benefited most. But it is useful for just that, and being the industry standard, Apple is hardly a company known for complying with industry standards.
While 16:10 is not drastically different, it provides more screen real estate in portrait mode, which is significantly important in all other tasks on a mobile device.
Almost the entire MacBook product line has 16:10 displays, with the 11" MacBook Air being the only outlier (I'm still having trouble figuring out why). And with the advent of Microsoft's Surface, Apple will surely try to bring iOS closer to OS X. This is why 16:10 makes sense on a Retina iPad (on top of the previously mentioned screen real estate in portrait view).
All in all, I am surprised that Apple has not decided to condense their products into one aspect ratio. And while I'm not arguing that 16:9 isn't a great AR (I know Apple could actually claim this as their standard) and 4:3 is a great AR for a reader, 16:10 makes the most sense given their entire product line. There won't be any changes to 16:10 in the foreseeable future b/c that would surely fragment the iPhone line. But a little less bezel coupled with a little more display (iPhone's display is not edge to edge) and a 16:10 iPhone would be just as conceivable.
16:9
- iPhone 5
- iPod Touch
- 11" MacBook Air
- iMac
16:10
- 13" MacBook Air
- MacBook Pro
4:3
iPad
iPad Mini
3:2
- iPhone 4/4S
16:9 is great for HD video, and this is where iPhone 5 benefited most. But it is useful for just that, and being the industry standard, Apple is hardly a company known for complying with industry standards.
While 16:10 is not drastically different, it provides more screen real estate in portrait mode, which is significantly important in all other tasks on a mobile device.
Almost the entire MacBook product line has 16:10 displays, with the 11" MacBook Air being the only outlier (I'm still having trouble figuring out why). And with the advent of Microsoft's Surface, Apple will surely try to bring iOS closer to OS X. This is why 16:10 makes sense on a Retina iPad (on top of the previously mentioned screen real estate in portrait view).
All in all, I am surprised that Apple has not decided to condense their products into one aspect ratio. And while I'm not arguing that 16:9 isn't a great AR (I know Apple could actually claim this as their standard) and 4:3 is a great AR for a reader, 16:10 makes the most sense given their entire product line. There won't be any changes to 16:10 in the foreseeable future b/c that would surely fragment the iPhone line. But a little less bezel coupled with a little more display (iPhone's display is not edge to edge) and a 16:10 iPhone would be just as conceivable.