Update – related story
Infogroup/ORC has conducted research which found in January 2010 that 6% of respondents either owned (1%) or expected to own (5%) a 3DTV within the next two years. The research firm estimates that this interest has since more than doubled to around 15%, with 4% owning a 3DTV and 11% expecting to purchase one within the next two years.
“Our research clearly demonstrates a significant growing interest in 3DTV,” said Wayne Russum, SVP and Director of ORC’s CARAVAN suite of omnibus services. “The household interest is at 15% which equates to approximately 17.5mn US households who either now own or intend to purchase the technology within the next two years. Given the average current price of a 3DTV, this finding should put smiles on the faces of retailers and manufacturers.”
Full story here
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Eye boggling 3D tellies are selling faster than 2D High Definition TVs ever did, according to Futuresource, with UK 3D TV shipments for 2010 expected to hit 120,000 units.
Despite surveys that said the UK population had no stomach for the headache inducing technology that is stereoscopic vision, the sales figures seem to speak for themselves.
Market research firm Futuresource expects 120,000 3D tellies to be shipped in the UK this year, reaching 550,000 in 2011. This compares to a mere 4,000 2D HD TVs sold in the UK in 2003, the first year they were available.
One big factor that seems to have persuaded sceptical Brits to part with their cash is huge price cuts of up to 40 per cent.
“Year one adoption of 3DTV is running at a far quicker rate in most territories than it did for high definition,” says Futuresource.
The company is predicting global sales of 3D TVs to exceed four million this year with 1.2 million of those in Western Europe alone. Of those forecast sales numbers the UK comes third behind France and Germany.
The recent 40 per cent price cuts are expected to be followed by further price reductions as the technology gets cheaper. According to Futuresource, products that use active glasses technology are now able to embed the 3D chipsets at a relatively low cost.
Passive glasses technology, as used in cinemas, is deemed too expensive to produce for the home and is expected to remain costly for some time. This is because the television screen itself has to be polarised, meaning it can show one image to one eye and another to the other eye at the same time.
Auto-stereoscopic displays, while here already for small screens, are not expected to reach TV sizes for another four years and even then they won’t be available at commercial prices, according to the firm.
Read the full story here: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1928817/eye-boggling-3d-telly-outsells-hd-adopters
