Advocates argue that 3D is totally the future, it just needs to be a bit more convenient and glasses-free—you’ll see! Unfortunately for these advocates, Toshiba’s latest numbers are not helping the cause, at least in the near-term.
Toshiba, if you’ll recall, was the first major manufacturer to sell a glasses-free set to consumers back in December. It sold less than half its 1,000 unit sales target in the first month on the market.
Now, it could be a size thing, as the two available sets were 20- and 12-inch models. Toshiba acknowledged this, and plans larger sets for the future (mammoth 56- and 65-inch sets were showcased at CES).
Even Sony’s glasses-enabled 3D offerings have trailed internal sales estimates, reports Bloomberg. Samsung, the other big player in the room, said last month that current 3DTV tech was “relatively weak,” meaning 3D’s current woes could also be related to making the technology available to consumers too soon.
All that said, the uncertainty remains. Could Ebert have been wrong about video game art, but right about 3D being a queasy dead-end? [Bloomberg]