I'm inclined to think that this is more a matter of commodity PC manufacturers lacking the courage to do anything different. I'm sure if Dell wanted a large num

I'm inclined to think that this is more a matter of commodity PC manufacturers lacking the courage to do anything different. I'm sure if Dell wanted a large number of good-quality high-resolution 4:3 IPS panels, they could get a reasonable price. Yes, they'd be more expensive than 16:9. Even if the quantity was high, 4:3 is inherently a little more because it's more area for the same diagonal measurement. Everyone's strategy for the past few years seems to be "watch what Apple does and try to make a cheaper version of it". There actually are two current production laptops I know of with 4:3 screens: the OLPC XO, and the Panasonic Toughbook 31.