What's with ulra-wide LCD monitors?

I just got a new LCD monitor at work. For a graduate student, I don't get these toys very often. The monitor is nice and bright, but the screen resolution-2048x1152, is driving me nuts. That's almost 2:1 ratio! You know, some people actually need monitors for work, or read text, rather than watching movies. But manufacturers seem to think that the wider, the better. Since it's not rotatable, reading text or surfing net on this monitor is quite distracting. For now, I'm trying to get used to having two almost square screens, and learn to ignore one of them. At home, I have a 1680x1050 monitor, and I consider that pretty wide. The newer LCDs seem to have one use in mind- watching movies. Or, more realisticly, to allow vendors to say it's 2x inch, with x being the higher the better.