I don’t think you quite understand how big that difference is. Lenovo sells half as many laptops as Apple sells iPads per quarter. That’s not laptops with one screen size and resolution, that’s six million laptops with wildly varying screen sizes and resolutions.
Apple has one iPad with one model of screen†. They sell millions per quarter and consequently need millions of identical screens per quarter. They have billions of Dollars with which they can pay upfront. Apple can pay LG one billion Dollars per quarter (that’s about as much as ten million iPad screens cost) upfront and wouldn’t even notice it all that much. Lenovo has less revenue, a lot less profit, a lot less cash reserves than Apple.
Lenovo sells many different laptops with many different screen sizes and resolutions. Many people probably do want 16:10 or 16:9 screens. They could probably sell substantially less than one million laptops with a 4:3 screen to a few weird nerds – and they would probably need 4:3 screens in different sizes and resolutions. That is certainly harder than what Apple has to do.
Apple can because Apple is unique. Their position allows them to do stuff like that.
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† After next Wednesday they might have two.
My original comment was more criticizing OEMs for what you stated in that quote above, rather than actual outrage that Lenovo wasn't bankrupting themselves by pursuing 4:3 screens regardless of cost.
Why do they need so many models and screen sizes? Why are all the models impossible to differentiate and difficult to buy?
If Lenovo went "Apple-like" with ThinkPads, cut down their range to a 15" T series and a 12" X series, maybe we'd still have 4:3 screens.
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2011/09/ultrabook-intel...
Well, but there's the rub: you definitely can get high resolution flat panel monitors today. You just have to buy a huge monitor to get that resolution.
So it seems obvious to me that Apple's not going to increase the size of the iPad. ( http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iPad-iMat-iBoard-Joke,news-5968.... )
The rest of us can fight over the scraps. Apple is big enough to dictate the design specs on their displays.
ThinkPad: "Since these manufacturers make more selling TV displays than laptop displays, the PC vendors have almost zero say in this change. We simply have to adapt. As much as I would like it to be so, 4:3 is not coming back." http://blog.lenovo.com/perspectives/display-ratio-change-aga...