The new iPad - Image courtesy of Gizmag.com
As developers of iPad and universal apps, this concerned us. Would our apps look horrible on the new iPad screen? Did we need to rush out upgrades to all of our apps, putting our current projects on hold?
So we got ourselves a shiny new iPad to test on. Now that I’ve played with it a bit, and we’ve tested some of our apps on it, I thought I’d share my conclusions.
As A Developer
You can definitely tell a difference between hi-res retina graphics and normal iPad graphics. Apps with retina images have an extra polish, a little sparkle over other apps. It’s a subtle difference, and possibly only visible if you are looking for that difference, but it is there.
As A Consumer
To be totally honest, if I weren’t paying attention to the difference between the retina and low-res graphics, I wouldn’t have noticed. Yes, the screen is crisp, but when I looked at our first-generation iPad after spending time with my shiny new iPad, I didn’t recoil in disgust. Maybe it’s my eyes, but I barely noticed unless I was actively analyzing the image quality.
When deciding which apps to download, I didn’t care if an app was upgraded for the new retina screen. What mattered most, what always matters most, was the core of the app itself: the features, the fun, the experience. I never even checked to see if an app I wanted was upgraded for retina graphics. If it was, it was a nice little bonus. If it wasn’t, I assumed it would be upgraded eventually.
Moving Forward
Of course you should upgrade the graphics in your iPad app at some point. Work it into your next update cycle. Keeping your app high-quality as technology advances will help keep it competitive.
But don’t panic. The slightly-less-than-perfect quality on the new iPads won’t be apparent to most consumers, for most apps. It certainly won’t stop someone from buying your app- or enjoying it – if the app itself is a good app.
One thing to note: if your app has both photos and vector graphics, definitely work on upgrading those photos. Some apps, like Wikipanion, have both: the vector graphics are retina, but the photos in the articles are all normal computer screen resolution, not retina. It’s a little jarring, but understandable – there’s no way they can update all the photos of all the entries. Moving forward, make sure all your photos are twice the size that they were before.
Here’s what we did: we were about to update one app anyway (Wild Fables), so we upgraded our graphics too. It added a day to our project, but it was a good time to do it. We also upgraded our most popular app (Math Ninja). But we have several other apps that we aren’t going to upgrade right away with retina graphics, because we have other projects that take precedence. We’ll upgrade the graphics the next time we update those apps.
Anyway, I hope this helps some other developers out there wondering what to do now that the iPad retina screen has made its appearance!
Have something to add? What do you think about the retina iPad screen? Chime in below in the comments!
I’ll be getting a new iPad in a few weeks, but only because I need it for testing my apps. From a consumer standpoint my iPad 2 gives me what I want.
Of course, I haven’t *seen* the new iPad yet, so maybe it will “blow my mind” and I’ll fall in love with it.
As a developer, I dislike the new iPad because to make apps that look the best they can be, I have to include graphics that are of no use to the iPad, iPad 2, and iPhone (for universal apps). That bugs me. And as a consumer that *really* bugs me. Because of the iPad 3′s enhanced graphics my iPad 2 and iPhone will fill up much faster than in the past for no good reason.
Will I update my games to include retina graphics? Yeah, probably. But I’ll grumble while I do it.
Hopefully Apple will put something in place that could strip the unneeded graphics when an app is installed.
Excellent article. It covers the topic very well. I would like to note that is critically important that ever developer look at their apps running on the actual iPad 3rd Generation and not trust the simulator for their decision making. One of my apps does not run properly or look good on the simulator and I was ready to update it but on the actual device it is just amazing how good it looks and how well it runs.
Also suggest that any assets that a developer recreates for retina sizes they go ahead make into vectors if the item is not already a vector image.
Again great article.
@J A Whye: yes, that would be nice if Apple could fix the issue of those extra graphics taking up room on older devices!
@Simengie: I agree, that’s why we got an actual device – the simulator was slow and sometimes doesn’t give accurate testing results. And YES, anyone not using vectors now needs to convert to them for future-proofing their work!
Well said, Vicky. I actually went to the store yesterday with the iPad to compare and see the difference but…. If you are not looking for it, you won’t see the difference.
Anyway, it doesn’t stop us from having to update our apps to retina res. We mustn’t be left behind.:-)
Well I just wanted to know your thoughts. What should we the developers think while developing the applications now. should we go for the universal application (with retina graphics) or two separate apps. Well i am worried about the increasing size of the applications.
Beyond the artwork, the horsepower needed to drive the higher resolution display has resulted in display performance issues in one of my apps. So besides getting my artist to spruce up my graphics, I also need to overhaul some of my algorithms. Yippie Skippie