My mother, who grew up in the Soviet Union, always said that about the United States.  So even when she came to this country, in the 50s, she was noticing the lack of a Long Tail.  This wasn't Henry Ford producing Model Ts in only black, this was a general problem of production for small market segments.

We're supposed to be over that, aren't we?  So why am I having so much trouble finding a non-widescreen monitor?  My monitor stopped working yesterday, in the middle of actual dayjob work (I don't usually work from home, but my son broke his leg and needed someone in the house with him).  A quick check with the laptop revealed a huge selection of big widescreen monitors at nice prices--one of which I eventually bought at a Staples around the corner.

I spend most of my time on this screen writing.  A widescreen gives me lines that are too long to read comfortably.  And I have no interest in having multiple windows visible--even single tasking puts a serious strain on my underpowered brain.  Surely I'm not the only one who wants this.  Why, then, is a simple portrait-orientation monitor suddenly so hard to find?

I felt the same way when, back in the days of PDAs, they all went color.  I kept addresses, dates, and other such information on it.  All color meant was that battery life went way down.  Then, with cell phones, the same thing happened.

This isn't some kind of curmudgeonly "I liked it better before" thing--at least I don't think it is.  It's a "why can't I buy it if I want it?" thing.

It's also a "is everyone else crazy?" thing.  I would have guessed the market would be split into the two types, with work-oriented people getting one, and entertainment-oriented people getting the other.  Does this show I would have failed in monitor marketing, or that I would have scored a success in an underserved market segment?

Just mark this market segment underserved.