I'm an adept Android user, but know my way around iOS as well. Something both platforms has in common is the stubborn conviction of not introducing the landscape mode for their Dashboard/Home screen for their cell phone models but only for their tablet ones.
I can't personally see the gain behind it, and I don't see any technical or usage problems with introducing it either.
Rather, the current approach annoys me. I usually have my cell phone mounted on my car dashboard in landscape mode when using the GPS. However, if I get stuck in a queue for example, I may take the time to leave the navigation for doing something else, like checking a message etc. I'm always annoyed and dumbfounded when navigating through the home UI when it's tilted, and relieved once I enter for example the messaging page (which is native) and the UI adapts to landscape. I'm fairly sure that the task would be a lot more simple to perform if the UI adapted to how I'm viewing it, still no one will introduce it.
I'm getting close to a rant, so I'll stop...
I've seen the subject being discussed on the Apple forum, but since no representative from Apple has participated in the discussion I'm none the wiser to what the rationale behind this choice is.
I would like to know if someone has some insight in this matter.
- What is the rationale behind two competitors restricting the user to use their device home screen in portrait mode?
- If that's hard to answer, then what could be the reason behind this rationale from your own reasoning?