It was assumed some time ago that 800 x 600 was safe for developing
sites optimized for that resolution.

Are the statistics still there?  How much have they changed over the
last three years?

Thank you.

/Lizardnation

---

Clarification of Question by lizardnation-ga on 23 Jun 2003 13:59 PDT

Ops!

Majority.  :o)

/Lizardnation

Hello again, lizardnation!

When researching these statistics, I found considerable variance from
one site to another. One source said "Credible stats are hard to
find," and I can certainly believe that. Seeking exact data on this is
rather like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. However, it does appear
that the trend toward higher resolutions has now put 1024x768 on the
top of the heap, with 800x600 close behind in popularity. Here are a
few figures for you:

"In a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a
definite trend was observed of users moving to higher resolution
desktop display formats. The survey demonstrated that the most common
display resolution is currently 1024x768 on a 15-inch display. This
display format is the least expensive to the consumer and most cost
effective to manufacture due to the sheer volume that are produced.
Less than 25% of the users surveyed were operating with a display
resolution lower than 1024x768."

OEM Portrait
http://oem.portrait.com/us/products/ls_whitepaper.html 

"800x600 (XGA): this accounts for ~45% of page accesses, down from 51%
a year ago. Some users surely have old PCs, with little video memory;
the rest likely have PCs whose resolutions are set lower because (a)
many new PCs default to a lower resolution, and (b) many PCs have
monitors too small for readable higher-resolution text. The percentage
will likely decrease steadily as higher resolution displays grow more
common, but will remain popular for many years.

1024x768 and higher (SVGA): this accounts for ~51% of page accesses,
up from 43% a year ago. Most new PCs have enough video memory for high
resolution displays, but many are set to a lower resolution because
(a) many new PCs default to a lower resolution, and (b) many PCs have
monitors too small for readable higher-resolution text. The percentage
of high resolution users will continue to grow steadily."

Upsdell Browser News
http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat_trends.htm#res

By comparison, here are some statistics from 2001:

Display Size           WebSideStory       Browser News  
                       7/2001 Survey      12/2001 Stats 
 
 640x480                  5.71%                4% 
 800x600                 52.47%               53% 
 1024x768 and higher     35.6%                41%

NetMechanic
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol4/accessibility_no24.htm

From web archives, here are data from 1999 and 2000:

Screen Resolution    Jul 99   Oct 99   Jan 00   Apr 00   Jul 00 
1024x768               22%      23%      25%      29%      30% 
800x600                54%      55%      56%      56%      56% 
640x480                15%      14%      11%      10%       9% 
Other or Unknown        9%       8%       8%       5%       5%

Archived data from W3Schools.com
http://web.archive.org/web/20000831045935/http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

If you do a Google search for the keyphrase "optimized for 1024x768"
you will get over 9,000 hits:

Google Web Search: "optimized for 1024x768"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22optimized+for+1024x768

A similar search for the keyphrase "optimized for 800x600" brings up
more than 57,000 hits:

Google Web Search: "optimized for 800x600"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22optimized+for+800x600

Although many Web designers are optimizing for larger resolutions,
obviously many are not. This change is happening gradually, and I
would expect that 800x600 will continue to be common on the Web for
quite some time, even though larger resolutions are becoming more
popular among users.

Search terms used:

"resolution" + "trends"
"resolution" + "statistics"
"resolution" + "stats"

I hope this information is helpful. Please request clarification if it
is needed; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you rate my
answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

One thing to keep in mind, even if the majority are now using
1024x768, as long as a sizable minority is still using 800x600, you
may want to continue designing to that level.  As someone who has
occasion to visit sites from computers with both resolutions, I am far
more annoyed by having to scroll side to side to see a full page
designed for a higher resolution than to have a little blank space
when visiting a site designed for a lower resolution.  And annoyed
visitors tend to surf on over to other sites that don't annoy them.  I
suspect that is why most pages are still designed for 800x600 - to
avoid antagonizing customers who haven't made the switch to a higher
resolution.  Of course if your site is promoting the latest high
quality graphics video games, as an example, then you might assume
your target audience will have the higher resolutions.