Marketing is a huge reason. "HD" laptop screens, for example, were meaningless but attached a moniker that the average consumer was familiar with ("HDTV") to a

Marketing is a huge reason. "HD" laptop screens, for example, were meaningless but attached a moniker that the average consumer was familiar with ("HDTV") to a platform they are less knowledgeable about (laptops). I think the whole HD/720/1080 marketing push created stagnation within the display industry, since there was little reason to build better displays beyond 720/1080. I am hopeful that with Retina and 4K, we'll swing back into a push for progressively better & progressively cheaper displays -- much like we had with the initial LCDs when they first started coming onto the market.