>>3
Not entirely. Teh future is unquestionably CDs / mp3's, because they're significantly cheaper than vinyl and less likely to give you a hernia, but real music fans want the spectacle of some sort of skilful manipulation. Somebody dicking about with traktor / ableton on a laptop doesn't necessarily meet that criteria (although said apps can be good when used "properly"), especially with something like D&B since clever tricks / scratches are always going to be easier on a 12" than a jogwheel. Also, unless you only play the latest shitty bouncy house or whatever then the ability to spin old obscure tracks not easily found as mp3's is very useful.
A setup that works well for some of my DJ'ing friends is 1200's flanked by Pioneer CD-Js, which have controllers (Numark I think) that clamp onto the record surface with a little rubber wheel, thus allowing CD control via vinyl manipulation. You can get integrated things like the SL-DZ1200 that do this if you're definitely not going to use vinyl at all.