The ASICs are going to drastically change the mining activity. I'm betting those not able to make bitcoins will move to other coins to mine. That will build the competition for the distributed anonymous currencies. Canada and the US are starting to regulate Bitcoin transactions. That will also make people move.

I'll mine my Bitcoins with my ASICs if I ever actually get them but will use my yet to be setup GPU rig on something else. Or buy someones GPU rig that's moving to ASIC.