> I am sure they did not copy the 21mm because it looks the best. There must be some other reason.

We agree. That reason being, it looks like Apple's, and consumers love that.

No, the reason it's that wide is because that's how wide PDMI cables are. They are all about the same width. It's a standard.

It's probably because these are easy to buy. The people making $1 iPod replacement cables must buy them somewhere, after all.

I have a Sansa music player that uses an iPod cable but with the wires hooked up differently for no apparent reason. It seems to be a pretty common thing.