Those dancing curves are designed for stunning acoustics first and modern-art elegance second. When I was a lad, plasma was something you read about in biology textbooks. Pioneer calls its PDP-505HD a plasma monitor. You could hang that on the wall. Plasma technology works like fluorescent or neon lighting.
Electricity is used to illuminate cells of inert gas stored in the display panel.
The result is a distortion-free image, watchable from almost any angle, that can be used for your PC as well as replacing the tube. If your holiday photos never manage to capture how blue the sea really was, you need a Kodak DCS 660. But consider that for that astronomical price you'll be getting the same technology NASA used on its most recent missions to Mars. You may not get to the red planet, but at least you can avoid any more red eye in your portrait shots. It has been a year for dot-com mania.