Philips' Ambilight TV

We're sorta scratching our heads over this one: a new line flat-screen TVs from Philips that come with ambient backlighting for illuminating the wall behind the screen and creating sort of halo around the TV. The backlight can also automatically adjust it's brightness depending on the brightness of whatever is on screen and the lighting of the room. Ok, so we get what it does, and we don't necessarily think it's a
bad idea, but is there really that much demand for having a halo around your TV? Is this a solving a problem we somehow weren't aware of?

[Thanks, Kelly]

UPDATE: A few people wrote in to mention that the backlight is supposed to make it easier to watch plasma TVs, which sorta does make sense.