"I don't want to buy a TV and have it obsolete the next year. What do you think?"
I think whatever you buy will be obsolete within a year. Panasonic seems committed to plasma and you can get an excellent 50" 1080p for $1100 or so. If it works for 3 months it'll likely last for a long time with no problems. Way too soon to be an early adopter of 3D technology in my opinion, so better to wait it out with a relatively cheap plasma that will look great until 3D technology improves and gets cheaper (and has a decent selection of quality programming worth watching). Best of luck.
I think whatever you buy will be obsolete within a year. Panasonic seems committed to plasma and you can get an excellent 50" 1080p for $1100 or so. If it works for 3 months it'll likely last for a long time with no problems. Way too soon to be an early adopter of 3D technology in my opinion, so better to wait it out with a relatively cheap plasma that will look great until 3D technology improves and gets cheaper (and has a decent selection of quality programming worth watching). Best of luck.