In the United States, on the other hand, bigger is generally better. And Dell Computer Corp. of Round Rock, TX, with its Inspiron 7000, already has shown that a 15-inch display is possible in today's market. But such machines are aimed at the desktop-replacement market, notes Phil Ventimiglia, product manager at Dell. Though analysts may see bigger screens, not all vendors do. In general, notebook screens measuring 14 inches diagonally appears to be the limit among users.
Corporate customers are more interested in value than in bigger screens.
Unfortunately, because most of an LCD screen is glass, as the display grows so does the notebook's weight, which is a burden to the road warrior who wants to travel light. Prices for larger, active-matrix screens also carry a premium. Just two years ago, passive-matrix displays accounted for 40 percent of the marketplace, notes Dave Mentley, a vice president at Stanford Resources. They held steady at 25 percent for quite a while after that but dropped recently to 20 percent, he says. Notebook vendors instead want to deliver higher resolutions with active-matrix TFT screens.