Comment by FirmwareBurner

>I do not believe for one second that there were economies of scale in those screens

It's irrelevant what you believe if you're wrong. Laptop LCD displays can be cut form the same master glass as TV LCD displays more economically if they share the same aspect ratio and also share the same COGs(chip-on-glass) that drive the exact same TV resolutions 1366x768 and 1920x1080.

>Look at how Apple never went 16:9 except for one model, the 11-inch MacBook Air.

Apple never competed on the price war. For them, $5 extra on the BOM didn't matter at their margins compare to the likes of Acer/Asus/etc.