Quite a few of us color geeks just went for the 24" HP Dreamcolor monitor.
Wide gamut, IPS.
I've ordered one. I hope it will allow me to softproof the gamut mapping of the profiling software I'm tuning. On paper this is what people should be considering now. Frankly, if I didn't need (I do color stuff) an updated reference display I would just get an Apple 30".
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_ki..._ws_lp2480z.pdfEdmund