Is 480px screen width a legitimate design target for mobile web applications in late 2009?

Question

I am working on a web application that will target the modern browsers or recent smartphones. When I look at the different resolutions, I see 480 a lot. For example:

• 480x320 is used by the iPhone and Blackberry Bold 9000. This appears to be a standard called Half VGA (HVGA), which has a 3:2 aspect ratio and half the pixels of VGA.
• 480x360 is used by the Blackberry Curve 8900, Blackberry Bold 9700 and Blackberry Storm 9550. It has a 4:3 aspect ratio.
• 480x854 is used by the Motorola Driod. This appears to be one of the resolutions attributed to Wide VGA (WVGA). It has a 16:9 aspect ratio.

This tells me that popular smartphones in late 2009 are converging on 480px for one of their screen dimensions and trying to match a standard aspect ratio.

The question is how legitimate is using 480px as the target width in my design. Are there any major negatives to this design?

Answer 1

That's not unreasonable. The main issue I see is that 480px is the width only in landscape orientation, not in the (sometimes default) portrait. I know that it is not a big deal these days to rotate one's phone, but this is something to think about.

Answer 2

240x320 is the new baseline for mobile phones. For high end units, 480 would be the correct width to aim for.