A new study by DisplaySearch, a market research firm that reports on the flat panel display industry, predicts that by this time next year, 87 percent of all notebooks purchased will have wide-aspect screens. According to the study, both consumers and IT buyers have gravitated toward widescreen notebooks.

Big notebooks continue to be popular--15.4-inch notebooks with a 1280 by 800 resolution are the most popular size of notebooks worldwide, except in Japan, where standard-aspect 15-inch notebooks still dominate.

If you take a look at the notebooks sold by many of the major manufacturers such as Dell, HP or Gateway, it's virtually impossible to find a notebook with a standard-aspect screen.

I did a quick search and I couldn't locate one at any of the three sites. Lenovo ThinkPads, however, continue to buck the trend, with many of the models continuing to be available only with standard-aspect screens. Nevertheless, though it's predicted that widescreen notebooks will dominate next year, it seems that they pretty much already do.