@kwistenbiebel said:

The way I see it, Google Earth is obsolete since G maps Streetview got mainstream (as said above).
I hardly ever use Google Earth but I very often use Maps. Why would I want to download an app (GE), if G Maps does a far more photoreal thing out of the box straight in my browser...?

The logical evolution would be seeing technology developed that extracts 3D from both street view input combined with the satellite top view....automatically.
The proof of concept is already there (ThomThom posted it somewhere).

I really can't imagine the whole world being modeled by hand for Google Earth. It feels old fashioned, will never be completed and to be honest, the current low poly GE models very often look crap.

Have you seen Place Pages on Maps yet? You might reconsider the usefulness of geo-located 3d models. Check out this as an example: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=14784564406270036321&q=cathedral%2Bdakar