Three dimensional sales
Despite sluggish world economies and lagging consumer confidence, sales of 3D TVs have grown against the odds, bolstered by falling prices, according to Futuresource Consulting.
With prices cut by up to 40 percent, the firm reckons the year one adoption of 3D TV is catching on ‘at a far quicker rate' than it did for HD sets.
Global sales of 3D TVs are expected to top 4m this year with 1.2m being sold in Western Europe, rising to over 3m in 2011, according to the research. It is predicted some 5m 3D TV sets will be sold in the US next year too.
"3DTV will continue to provide 'premium brand' CE manufacturers with a way to differentiate themselves from the competition and add value for consumers," said Bill Foster, senior technology consultant at Futuresource Consulting.
He said manufacturers of systems that use active glasses technology can now embed 3D chipsets at a relatively low cost so they can boost their margins while making 3D TV relatively affordable. However, he predicted that passive glasses technology will remain pricier to produce and therefore expensive for consumers as TV sets need polarised screens.
Foster believes that with traditional factors like screen size, display thickness and the quality of image reaching their peak, 3D capability will increasingly be bundled with other features like connectivity, web services and energy efficiency to add a new dimension beyond the battle for price point as the TV market becomes more commoditised.
"Toshiba's announcement about its autostereoscopic (glasses-free) 3DTVs, combined with a number of optimistic predictions across the industry, may be discouraging some consumers from investing in the current generation of 3DTV. However, Futuresource research shows that autostereoscopic technologies are at least four years away from a large screen solution for the home, and it will likely be a few years beyond this before sets reach mass-market pricing," he said.
