Hello! I've been having this dilemma of whether to optimize my site for 1280 or 1024 px. (horizontal width). I didn't find a reliable statistics about monitors's sizes and resolutions. It's all very approx. I'm thinking that probably 1024 is better because of 2 reasons: My potential customers live in poorer countries (3rd world, former USSR)where 15'' and 17'' monitors are still the most common ones and the second reason is that overall, if you have to choose between 2 "evils"...I think it's better to have a 1024 px optimized site on 1280 screen (and see some empty space on the sides), than to get a horizontal scroll bar on 1024 monitors if the site were to be optimized for 1280. Your opinion?
Someone will be along shortly to post the usual comments regarding fluid layouts.... "which work at all resolutions." I tend to disagree, I have two 1680 panels side by side linked as one (so a fluid layout looking good at 3320px wide??) Something else to take into consideration is screen resolution isn't browser window resolution, most people who have HD displays use part it as a browser window.
Defo design for 1024 still very widely used and you need to think about the type of visitors your going to get, best thing check your site stats and it will have the exact figures for your site saying what percentage of people use each screen size, some sites are full of HD gamers with awsome screens then on the other hand certain countrys and certain types of sites also use alot of old smaller screens. To really confuse things some sites are even more popular on phones and small computers/laptops even PDA's.
At work I'm using 1280 while at home I've 12" notebook where 1024 is best. I think you should optimize for 1024, because it's big industry of netbooks appeared last year where 1024 used mostly.
It's best to check your analytics to see what browser your customers are viewing your site at. I generally design everything for 960px width to accommodate the scroll bar if visible at 1024. AFAIK most laptops aren't going to be set to 1280 or 1600. Is your audience mostly on mobile devices or on the go type people? Are the looking for information or are you showcasing your design? There are a few things to consider before you eliminate part of your audience.
1280; things tend to get bigger so you need to be prepared. I believe the percentage of their use is almost equal at the moment, I remember looking at that a few months back.
HD rules! but you should at least go for 1280, do people still sell monitor which only support 1024??