Dell to launch 19in widescreen notebook 'next year'

Dell is preparing a monster 19in widescreen notebook for release next year, according to moles, cited by DigiTimes, claim the beast will be produced by Compal, which is already producing a range of widescreen notebooks for Dell.

Little more is known about the enormous notebook, which is arguably unlikely to be used beyond the confines of a desk - 17in jobs are bad enough as it is - but its arrival will form part of a big shift toward 16:9 widescreen laptops and away from 4:3 ratio screens.

Digitimes' sources claim all the major notebook vendors, including Apple, HP, Acer and Dell, are planning to increase the number of widescreen notebooks they offer. IBM, which apparently doesn't offer a widescreen notebook today, will do so next year, the sourcessay, adding 15.4in jobs to its ThinkPad R and G lines. Apple is believed to have signed a deal with Quanta to produce a widescreen iBook.

The upshot will be a doubling of the size of the widescreen notebook market by H1 2006. Today, 30-40 per cent of notebooks sport a 16:9 screen. In a year's time, that proportion will have risen to 80-90 per cent on the back of consumer demand and falling LCD prices, in particular the premium over 4:3 ratio screens. ®

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