Not computer industry, but TV industry.  After all, US invented and popularized the television set, and back in the 40's and 50's, 99% of people didn't even know that something like the metric system existed.  The marketers are missing the obvious: using centimeters to categorize display size, will make it seem bigger.  They missed a golden opportunity with digital camera and cellphone displays which could have been given in either mm or cm. 

Tires, BTW, are also sized by the inch across the world, since the US dominated the car industry.  Same goes for horsepower of a car engine, and for aviation instruments. 

Remek

On 5/6/06, Mike Millet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
You will find that even in fully metric countries such as Australia and others computer screen sizes are referred to in inches. I think it has something to do with the dominance the early US computer industry had on the world, and even though the manufacture of all computer parts is done in metric, that has stuck.

I have occasionally heard screen sizes done in cm but it's very very uncommon.

Mike


On 5/6/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One of my co-workers is from Argentina. One day, she was showing me an online Buenos Aires newspaper, and I couldn't help but notice the an ad for 17" computer monitors. Most of the specifications listed are in metric - but some Imperial units still managed to make it there - like degrees F for operational temperatures. I wonder if the 17" designation has any meaning to the customers, or if it viewed more like an arbitrary number (like women's dress sizes in the US)?

The newspaper ad can be viewed here:


and the product specs are here:




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