While I do appreciate monitors have become wider, since IDEs these days are very screen real-estate hungry, I do believe it's a shame it means limiting the vertical resolution. I can live with 1080 pixels, but more definitely wouldn't hurt!

Production costs is probably the main factor, but the form factor is probably also important in and by itself - 16:9 is the standard for HD content, and the manufacturers are probably afraid of going with something else, especially as we see TVs and computer monitors converge.

I don't know that the manufacturer's are "afraid" of going with other than 16:9, I think they have good reason to stick to it (several of the reasons already posited in this thread). I think the vast majority of the display market consists of people not well informed (or even particularly concerned) enough to demand something other than 16:9, and in fact many consumers may like that aspect ratio because it's familiar from TVs. While there is a vocal minority like us who wants more height, the overall market doesn't care, and may even prefer widescreen (even if the reason for that preference is not well founded). So there is little or no incentive for manufacturers do to other than 16:9 displays.

- Oshyan