AFAIK the "widescreen era" of computer monitors has been driven by TV screens & TV screen marketing (non-tech and non-screen-nerd people just knew "HD" and mayb

AFAIK the "widescreen era" of computer monitors has been driven by TV screens & TV screen marketing (non-tech and non-screen-nerd people just knew "HD" and maybe "1080p" meant "good screen"), which were driven by the desire to watch movies at close to full-frame, which I'd guess were driven by the need/desire to have a wide viewing area for seating-layout reasons. Early cinema, though, often used aspect ratios much closer to 4:3 than later films (they're actually really nice to watch on iPads), so the later, wider format must have evolved for some reason.