Glasses-Free 3D TVs Aren't Selling In Japan

And they won't sell anywhere else right now either.

Feb 4 2011, 3:52pm CST | by Robert Evans

Glasses-Free 3D TVs Aren't Selling In Japan

Toshiba's first glasses-free 3D televisions went on sale this month...in Japan. Which is why you haven't seen lines of gawkers outside of your local Best Buy. Not that people are exactly lining up to buy these things in Japan, early adopter capital of the world. The Japan Times reports that sales of the new glasses-free sets were less than half of what the manufacturer had expected.

Those anticipated sales were pretty modest too- just 1,000 units each of their 12" and 20" models. Instead, only half that many of the 20" models sold- and far fewer 12" models left the shelves. So what does this early failure teach us about glasses-free 3D?

1. People aren't willing to sacrifice display size. We've just now gotten to the point where 30"-50" TVs are the standard. Costs being equal, a 20" glasses-free 3D TV is not a good replacement for a 40" HDTV in the average living room.

2. We are a long ways off from mainstream adoption of any sort of glasses-free 3D. The Sony rep at CES described it as on the same time-frame as a flying car. Obviously, he wasn't talking about tiny glasses-free screens. Sony had a couple of 32" displays that worked quite well.

But they are too small for the cost. Glasses free 3D TVs need to get bigger and drop precipitously in price before they'll even be worth considering for most consumers.

Updates

PREVIEW: LG 55-inch 55EM9600 OLED TV first look

Source: Tech Digest

We've been big fans of OLED TV tech at Tech Digest and HDTV UK for many a year since first setting eyes upon a prototype Sony screen at CES a few shows ago. Incremental updates to the tech have wowed us at subsequent trade shows, but high prices for s ...
Full article at: Tech Digest More like this 6 minutes ago

This Week's Hottest Reviews on TechRadar

Source: MacLife

The start of 2012 was absolutely dominated by the new iPad. Rumours, leaks, announcements, reviews--the iPad 3 fed and watered tech and mainstream media writers and readers alike for months. But since then, it's been the Samsung Galaxy S3 that's be ...
Full article at: MacLife More like this 1 hour ago

Toshiba bows out of netbooks in the US, sees Ultrabooks as the wave of the future

Source: Engadget

The pace of netbook launches has visibly slowed between the dual-pronged pressures of tablets and ultrabooks, and at least for Americans, it's about to get a lot slower. A Toshiba executive has warned that there aren't any plans to bring more n ...
Full article at: Engadget More like this 1 hour ago

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

Don't miss ...

Home Entertainment

LG hires Megan Fox to Promote LG's Cinema 3D TVs...

Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.