I don't know if there are any official press releases about this but:
before vinyl there, records where produced with another material that was more fragile. (can't find the english term for this)
with vinyl it was possible to produce better quality stereo music with a wider frequency range.
now on this moment people are developing a substitute for vinyl...
maybe you all remember the big 12" discs they used to play movies on. that was before the DVD came.
they want to produce a 12" record with the same material. so in the future we will have 12" silver discs in stead of the black vinyl ones.... better sound quality, wider stereo and frequency range.
and most important; we don't have to throw away our trusty decks!
just mix, cut, play and scatch like we all used to do as DJ's.
and: the production costs, and therefore the final retail price for a record will be a lot cheaper.
sounds like gold doesn't it? :)