Display Industry's Squandered Opportunity

I just got an ad from Amazon for monitors, but I didn't look at any of them because I was pretty sure they were all 1080p monitors. This infuriates me because the display industry has wasted an opportunity in the name of standardization. What opportunity was wasted? We should have had higher resolutions 5 years ago.

In 1995 when I bought my first computer it took me an extra paycheck to get a 15" monitor instead of the standard 14" that everyone else was buying. It was a pretty big deal because the 15" had a resolution of 1024x768 whereas the 14" was limited to 800x600.

Since that time I have been upgrading my monitor to bigger screens and higher resolutions, because I knew that screen real estate was key to productivity. If I had money to spend on upgrading equipment, the first thing I looked at was the monitor or video card.

By 1999 I was using two monitors, a 19" and a 21", both with a resolution of 1280x1024 and they were both CRTs so they took up a lot of space on my desk. It was only a few months ago when I gave up my second monitor so my son could have one, that I have had a single monitor on my desk.
Around 2000 my office started upgrading to flat panels. This was about the time that HDTV started getting mentioned in the BestBuy ads. We got 20" flat panels that had great resolution, 1600x1200. I was in heaven. My next job was the same. Bigger flat panels and more pixels.

Then the wide screens started showing up and the race for more pixels pretty much stopped. The display makers figured out that not only would consumers settle for 1920x1080 (or 1080p), but they would also think that they were getting a good deal because the television makers were telling them that resolution was the best.

Then Apple came along with their 30" Cinema display. The resolution was at 2560x1600 and it was beautiful. Dell followed with their own 30" but that resolution never made it down to smaller screens. Apple would eventually release a 27" 2560x1440 screen for their iMac line, but that was as far as the industry would go.

The race for more pixels died. All of the display makers were happy with 1080p and Apple happily had the top end to themselves. The normal progression was for the resolution to be compacted to fit into smaller and smaller screens and then the bigger screens would start to have more resolution. Our video cards are faster than ever, and yet 2560x1600 is the best that you can buy for $1000.

The next 1080p will be called 4k (4096x2160). 4k displays should have been available 5 years ago. Everyone should be sporting a 4k monitor on their desk right now, but the television makers made it easy for all the monitor makers to stop at 1080p. Instead of more pixels the screen the industry got side tracked on 3D. Consumers got conned into thinking 1080p was the best. You can get 1080p on a 4" cell phone now, but good luck finding more resolution for your desktop at a good price.

Now things are about to change. There are two players who are going to bring 4k onto the desktop.
The first is a little company named Seiki. It is offering 4k televisions for low prices. I wanted to buy a 39" 4k to use as a monitor since it was only $699. (Buy it from Amazon here: Seiki Digital SE39UY04 39-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV Full disclosure, that is an affiliate link). Forget watching TV, I want more room for my computing. The Seiki has a resolution of 3840x2160 which is more screen real estate than ever before.

The second company is Apple. Apple will lead the rest of the industry into 4k. They dropped a hint during the announcement of the MacPro. That hint can be seen in the product information for the MacPro. What is this hint? The MacPro will support up to 3 (three!!) 4K monitors. None of the press mentioned the monitors. When Apple announces the release of the MacPro I am betting there will be a new Retina Display to go with it. That Retina Display will be a 4k display that will look fantastic when powered by the new MacPro. Dell and all of the display companies will hurry to make a similar device. They will be playing catchup yet again.

I don't know why the industry doesn't move forward. I don't know why it waits on Apple. Any of the display companies could release a 4k monitor tomorrow and rake in the cash. Gamers, movie makers, photographers and programmers will all buy. I say, restart the pixel races. In the mean time, I am waiting on the Retina Displays.