According to a slide obtained by Liliputing, Intel is pushing device makers to adopt "rich displays" by 2013+. Phones and other handhelds with 5" screens should get 1280 x 800 pixel screens, while 10" tablets and ultrabooks with an 11" screen will adopt 2560 x 1440 pixel displays.
The 13" ultrabooks should get 2800 x 1800 pixel screens, and 15" laptop users will be able to ditch their 1366 x 768 screens in favor of a 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution! The latter resolution will also be used for all-in-one desktops with screen sizes of 21". Unfortunately, details about regular LCD monitors for desktop PCs aren't included in the slide.
Part of what will make these new higher resolution displays possible are changes in the way Windows and other operating systems handle pixel density. While Windows 7 and earlier operating systems have allowed users to change some DPI (dots per inch) settings, for the most part things look messy when you do that, with some fonts and graphics rendering larger than others.
And if you don’t adjust your DPI settings (as well as the sizes of scrollbars, toolbars, and other items) then text and pictures may be too tiny to read on small, high resolution screens.