3DTV Americans postpone purchases

Recent survey report is not good news for makers of 3DTVs.

Though consumers report that they really enjoy the  feeling immersed in 3D, they do not enjoy the restricting feeling of wearing the glasses. New comments point to the fact that they do not like the fact that it reduces the multi-tasking they can do without having glasses on.

As it has been noted before, high cost and lack of content are also major concerns for consumers.

This new reports pointed out that 89% of the people that responded felt the glass would constrain other activities they usually do while watching TV.

77% have also stated they feel the 3D technology is only good for sports and special events and not for everyday TV viewing.

Most interesting and possibly alarming fact is that Purchasing Intent declined after customers that has said they intended to purchase in the next 12 month actually had a live demonstration.

The vendor community has put a large amount of money and effort into having live demonstrations available at retail stores with the intent to increase purchase intent, and it appears it is having the opposite impact.

The report was by the Nielsen Company and the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing.


I agree with the content shortage issue, and I also agree that 3DTV is mainly for Movies / Sports and Special events. That being said, Home Theaters that are in customers homes where driven by the intent to recreate the MOVIE experience. Although customers may have only purchased the 40,50,60+ inch screen with the intent to recreate the movie experience they are watching pretty much all programing on these home theater set ups.

As content increases I would expect to see some similar natural change even if the customer INTENT is not there, once the technology is in the home it will be interesting to see how often it is used.

Recently (previous blog of mine) RealD announced technology that can be added to the screen to use Polarized lenses, so the glasses are not powered, and stuck via IR with the TV. This would provide the freedom and multi tasking that customers are used to with their TV experience.

How and when and if the 3DTV options go polarized has yet to be seen.

This is a HOT topic for the TV industry over the next 3 to 5 years. With not much else NEW on the horizon for flat panel television this is a key issue to watch.

JZ