Your Email on Mobile: How Each Mobile OS Displays Your Message

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As more mobile devices are introduced into the marketplace, the number of screen sizes we need to consider when designing email is exploding. This superabundance of screen sizes directly impacts the design and planning process—affecting how you determine breakpoints in media queries, lay out your design and use responsive design techniques.
To make matters more confusing, each mobile device will likely run one of four popular operating systems, each with its own ecosystem of downloadable applications for reading email. These applications offer differing support for HTML and CSS—meaning that emails opened on the same device might display differently from program to program and app to app. It’s worthwhile to note that the concept of pixel density also plays a part (see callout below).

IS A PIXEL REALLY A PIXEL?
With the introduction of retina and high-resolution displays came a lot of confusion about how wide emails and websites would appear on devices. If the specs for the iPhone 5 tell us that the resolution is 1136 x 640, why isn’t the phone physically wider than the iPhone 3GS (which had a resolution of 480 x 320)?
The iPhone 5 displays 1 device-independent (or density-independent) pixel, or ‘dip’, for every 2 physical pixels on the display, making the iPhone 5 have a device pixel ratio of 2 and a dip resolution of 568 x 320. So, while Samsung’s Galaxy Note has a massive physical pixel resolution of 1280 x 720, the dip is 640 x 360.

While we can’t cover every conceivable option, the graphic below begins to communicate the wide variety of mobile screen sizes out there, and shows how a standard 600px-wide email without responsive elements will display on several popular devices and the default mail applications in each of their operating systems. You can also see a hands-on review (and video!) of how BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone displays email in a separate post.
Click on the graphic for an enlarged view. The entire text of the graphic is also available below.

Infographic design: Brandon Cooper
With 43% of all email opens occurring on a mobile device, it’s important to understand how your email will look when opened on one. Factor in ever-increasing screen sizes to the various mobile operating systems and email programs available, and you are left with a dizzying array of combinations to consider.
We’ve taken some of the guesswork away by visualizing how the same email will appear in five common devices and operating systems available.

Apple iPhone 5

With 47.8 million iPhones sold in the last quarter of 2012, Apple ranks as the #1 smartphone manufacturer and #2 smartphone platform in the US with 36.3% market share.

• 4” display
• 1136 x 640 resolution at 326 ppi
• iOS 6

All iPhone and iOS versions zoom into emails to fit the message to the width of the screen.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

The Note runs Android, the #1 smartphone platform in the US with 53.4% market share. Samsung was the #2 device manufacturer in 2012, taking 21% of the market.

• 5.55” display
• 1280 x 720 resolution at 267 ppi
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Android displays the upper left-hand corner of your email, leaving users to scroll left-and-right in addition to up-and-down to view your entire message. The exact dimensions of this “preview pane” vary.

LG Nexus 4

While LG ranks as the #5 smartphone platform, their Nexus 4 phone runs Android, the #1 operating system. This popular phone has been frequently sold out, especially in the weeks leading into the 2012 holiday season.

• 4.7” display
• 1280 x 768 resolution at 320 ppi
• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Android users may choose to view emails with the platform’s popular Gmail application or the manufacturer-provided native email application. The Gmail app (like its desktop counterpart) lacks support for embedded CSS, essentially ignoring any responsive elements in your email. However, the native email app has built-in media query support, displaying responsive messages in their full glory.

Nokia Lumia 920

With just 2.9% of smartphone platform share, Microsoft has managed to generate a lot of buzz surrounding its latest operating system, Windows Phone 8. More popular outside the US, Nokia reports sales of 4.4 million Lumia devices in Q4 2012

• 4.5” display
• 1280 x 768 resolution at 332 ppi
• Windows Phone 8

The from name and subject line dominates the inbox view on Windows Phone 7+. The email is also “zoomed in” to fit the entire width on the screen, although less so than on iOS.

BlackBerry Bold 9900

BlackBerry has maintained a spot as the #3 smartphone platform, but continues to lose market share, declining from 8.4% in Q3 2012 to 6.4% in Q4 2012. BlackBerry devotees love the physical keyboard while enterprises appreciate the built-in security features.

• 2.44” display
• 480 x 360 resolution at 244 ppi
• BlackBerry OS 6

Similar to Android, BlackBerry phones running OS 6 will display the top-left corner of emails.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Email design tips and examples for Windows Phone and Android
• A downloadable file of various Android preview panes
• More information on pixel density, including common pixel-device-ratios
• Worldwide mobile phone sales, top smartphone platforms, details on Nokia sales, and a summary of growth
• Distribution of screen sizes/densities across Android devices
• Responsive design and media query support for email

How to Write a Convincing E-mail

Follow this simple, six-step system to ensure your e-mails get the job done.

riggzy/Flickr

 

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E-mails are the most common document in the business world. Unfortunately, many e-mails are so poorly written that recipients must struggle to figure out why they're reading the e-mail and what they're supposed to do about it.

Here's a foolproof method to write e-mails that get the job done.

1. Have a specific decision in mind.

The goal of an e-mail is always to get the recipient(s) to make a decision of some kind. Otherwise, why bother writing the it?

Therefore, before you write anything, ask yourself: exactly what decision do I want the recipient to make?

As with all business writing, vagueness is the opposite of useful. The clearer the goal, the more convincing your e-mail will be.

2. Start by writing your conclusion.

Your conclusion is a statement of the decision that you want the recipient to make, based upon the contents of your e-mail.

In school, they probably taught you to start with an introduction and end with an conclusion. Wrong.

Nobody in the business world has time to wander through the development of an idea. If you don't tell them the reason for the e-mail immediately, chances are they'll just move on.

So you start with your conclusion. For example, suppose your goal is get your boss to approve an in-house gym.

WRONG:

Jim,
As you know, employee absenteeism is generally recognized as an ongoing problem with a steep financial impact, both in our company and in other companies in our industries. [yada, yada, yada] Therefore, we should consider allocating money for the installation of a gym at our headquarter facility.

RIGHT:

Jim,
I want you to approve the installation of an in-house gym.

3. Structure your supporting argument into "digestible chunks."

Once you've stated your conclusion, marshall the arguments that support your conclusion (i.e. the decision you want made). To make your arguments "digestible," break them into small "chunks," and present each point with a similar format and sentence structure.

WRONG:

According to a recently published government report, group physical fitness is extremely important even though very few companies actually demonstrate a commitment to it! Many firms identify physical fitness as an undervalued competitive asset, but don't have a plan for improvement in this area, even though physical fitness is strongly linked to corporate and individual economic and personal success. I feel that if we do not address the issue of physical fitness as it enhances workplace productivity, we will be left behind.

RIGHT:

An in-house gym will:
- Reduce absenteeism.
- Increase overall productivity.

4. Bolster each argument with evidence.

It's been said that everyone has two things: a sphincter and an opinion. Unless you provide facts that back up your arguments, your e-mail becomes one giant, opinion and therefore, in the eyes of the recipient, you'll probably seem like one, giant... well..., you get the idea.

WRONG:

An in-house gym will reduce absenteeism because then people will want to come to work rather than stay at home and they won't get sick so much.

RIGHT:

- Reduce absenteeism. According to a National Health Institute survey of 1,000 firms, companies with in-house gyms experience 20% less absenteeism than thosewho lack such facilities.

5. Repeat your conclusion as a "call to action."

At the end of the e-mail, restate the conclusion in a way that provides the recipient with the next step that the recipient must take, assuming the recipient now agrees with your conclusion, based upon the force of your arguments and evidence. Keep it simple and specific.

WRONG:

Your support for this project would be greatly appreciated.

RIGHT:

If you respond to this e-mail with your approval, I'll get the process started.

6. Stick a benefit in the subject line.

Your subject line (aka "title") is the most important part of an e-mail, which is why you write it last, after you've written down both your conclusion and the arguments and evidence that supports that conclusion.

Ideally, a subject line should accomplish two important tasks: 1) interest the recipient enough so that the e-mail gets opened and read, and 2) imply the conclusion that you want to the recipient to accept.

In most cases, the best way to accomplish both tasks is to encapsulate a benefit (or benefits) that will result from the decision that you'd like the recipient to make.

WRONG:

Subject: The Health Impact of In-House Employee Fitness Programs

 RIGHT:

Subject: How we can reduce absenteeism

 To wrap it up, here are the two e-mails:

WRONG:

To: Jim@Acme.com
Subject: The Health Impact of In-House Employee Fitness Programs
Jim,
As you know, employee absenteeism is generally recognized as an ongoing problem with a steep financial impact, both in our company and in other companies in our industries. An in-house gym will reduce absenteeism because then people will want to come to work rather than stay at home and they won't get sick so much. Therefore, we should consider allocating money for the installation of a gym at our headquarters facility. Your support for this project would be greatly appreciated.
Jill

RIGHT:

To: Jim@Acme.com
Subject: How we can reduce absenteeism
Jim,
I want you to approve the installation of an in-house gym. This will:
- Reduce absenteeism. According to a National Health Institute survey of 1,000 firms, companies with in-house gyms experience 20% less absenteeism than thosewho lack such facilities.
- Increase productivity. We have 50% more absenteeism than other firms in our industry, so reducing that number by 20% will automatically increase our productivity by 10%.
If you respond to this e-mail with your approval, I'll get the process started.
Jill

Seriously, which of the two e-mails do YOU think is more likely to move your agenda forward?

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Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source