Frank,

I think the jury's still out on this one. I really wasn't paying attention to RWD until the post on the market trends. I think there's a valid point there.

However, I'm not sure all sites would convert well. For example, I while back I did a makeover of a very image heavy site from a fluid layout (this was way before RWD) to a fixed width layout. This was a site for high end custom built furniture. Not only was the new site visually more appealing, it was easier to navigate and didn't change how many images were displayed (width-wise) as the browser was re-sized. I find that on very large monitors, too many columns is more confusing than just a few with more rows that are scrolled. The site owner agreed and was happy with the result. It displays fine on a tablet, at least one the size of an iPad3. And, I'm not sure how likely someone looking for pricey, high end custom furniture is to be using a smart phone to find what they want.

So, I think the answer may be, it depends... on the nature of the content and the target audience. For less image intensive applications, I think the responsive web design may have real value, especially where it is more likely to be viewed on a smartphone or iPod size device.