Plasma's are going nowhere, they are here to stay. The reason people buy LCD's is because they are misinformed about plasma's. They got a bad wrap when they first came out because of false recharging claims, burn in, and power consumption. Plasma's have a half life of 30years anymore, burn in is a thing of the past, and they are all energy star compliant. LED's are just the newest cool thing, the Samsungs are side lit so they are just making the TV thinnner thats all. The LG's and Toshiba's are doing local dimming, where they can shut off or dim different parts of the picture to products better contrast. They exact same thing plasma's have been doing for years except they do it by firing off different phosphurs at different temperatures to produce colors. Not only to the do it cheaper but they do it better and they have the new slim models to compete with super slim LCD's like the Samsungs B860 and Panasonics wireless Z1.