Why are LCDs more popular than plasma?

My experience is that the Plasma's tend to do black better (critical, to me), and all but the Toshiba LCD's are comparable. Other lcd's, including Sharp's to me leave little to be desired.
For me, at entry price, I recommend the cheap Visio Plasma in the 42-50" range. (sacrifice parts quality color accuracy, etc). For mid, I like Toshiba LCD's (do black rather well), and Pioneer Plasma. For upper, I like Pioneer Elite, with Fujitsu and Runco's at the very top.
Yeah, to me, most lcd's are just like my laptop - I concure.

It is also important to note that a lot of people buy smaller TVs and the smallest plasmas are 37 ins.

I have a 30" widescreen lcd in the bed room
works fine - decent visuals, no worries on burn in

I have a Pioneer Elite 1130 in the music room
stunning Blu Ray, HD antenna, Upsampled dvd, so so DIsh Network,

my son plays games on my old Proton 36" crt

considering the new Pioneers - even better blacks

blue ray is fab on my 1080i
can't imagine the 1080p versions

I keep my TVs on a lot and keep them for a long time. The fact that plasmas will eventually burn out without the option to replace a bulb keeps me from going with that technology despite my general preference for the picture quality.

I like LCDs for two main reasons...the first is that my TV gets used for video games, so there is no worry of burn in vs. plasmas. The second is power consumption--in my experience LCDs suck down a lot less juice.

-Sam