Sony is banking on 3-D television

Blockbuster movies may get consumers to put on the glasses at home

Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune

Tae-Soo Park of South Korea tried on a pair of Sony’s 3-D glasses to watch 3-D video at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

TV makers have placed big bets this year on 3-D, with the first 3-D capable sets beginning to show up on store shelves this summer and fall.
And perhaps no company has a bigger corporate mandate to make its 3-D bet pay off than Sony Electronics, whose North American headquarters is in San Diego.
The Japanese company forecasts 3-D products will bring in $10 billion in worldwide business for Sony by 2013 — helping resurrect a once-dominant television business that has suffered from stiff competition from Samsung, LG and Vizio.
But for this year, Sony is keeping its expectations for 3-D television sales conservative in North America.
“I’ve seen numbers as high as 5 million units in this country and numbers as low as 1 million,” said Stan Glasgow, head of Sony Electronics North America. “I tend to lean toward the lower end in 3-D. I think it is going to take a little time.”
Analysts agree that 3-D may get off to a slow start, mostly because of a lack of available 3-D shows.
“We don’t really see 3-D as being big this year, although if you add up the sales goals of companies that are going to be selling 3-D TVs worldwide, it’s dramatically bigger,” said Paul Gagnon, director of television research for DisplaySearch, which follows the television industry.
Television makers hope to sell more than 6 million 3-D TVs worldwide, Gagnon said. DisplaySearch, an NPD company, forecasts 1.2 million in 3-D unit sales.
Sony hosted an event at its new Rancho Bernardo headquarters recently for analysts and media to discuss the coming 3-D blitz. The message was that while sales may not be robust this first year, the push for 3-D in the living room is not just marketing hype.
The company views 2010 as a year of education when consumers will begin to see just what 3-D can deliver. Sony and its rivals say 3-D is the next home-theater technology evolution, similar to high-definition digital televisions.
Blockbuster 3-D feature films, such as “Avatar,” and high expectations for upcoming 3-D releases such as “Alice in Wonderland,” are helping to create consumer buzz around the technology, Sony says.
“Consumers are showing strong interest in 3-D, and they’re doing it with their wallet in the theater,” said Mike Fasulo, Sony Electronics’ chief marketing officer,
Sony is showing 3-D televisions now in certain Sony Style retail stores. The company has partnerships with IMAX, The Discovery Channel and ESPN to support 3-D programming. And it has established a 3-D consumer research lab in Las Vegas and a technology center in Los Angeles.
LG, Samsung, Panasonic and others will be vying for this market, too. Sony’s pitch centers on its broad experience in the technology, which it calls “lens to living room.”
The company’s professional arm is the leading maker of cameras used to create 3-D movies and television shows, Its movie division has deep experience in making 3-D live-action and animated films in a way that’s not overwhelming, which can lead to nausea or headaches for viewers.
“3-D is not hard to create,” Glasgow said. “It’s really hard to create good 3-D. We are a company of quality.”
The top rival for Sony in 3-D, at least initially, could be Panasonic, said Richard Doherty, director of Envisioneering, an industry research firm.
Panasonic claims plasma televisions produce a better 3-D experience than liquid crystal displays, or LCD, sets.
“LCDs are getting better every day, but they’re not as good as plasma,” said Doherty. “Sony doesn’t have a plasma TV in their line, and they’re not about to.”
But Sony has other advantages. “The PlayStation 3 is the only gaming device that’s upgradeable to 3-D and there are tens of millions of them,” Doherty said, adding that companies will try to get consumers to buy various equipment from the same company to be sure it works together.
3-D technology standards exist for Blu-ray, so 3-D discs work on the players no matter who made the TV. But that is not true with everything 3-D, including the glasses.
Analysts are concerned that the lack of standards across technologies could slow down the adoption of 3-D. For example, 3-D glasses themselves can cost more than $100 each.
But they may not work well with all 3-D televisions. “There should be some cross-brand compatibility, so Joe with his Panasonic 3-D TV can bring his glasses over to Sam’s Sony and get them to work,” said Gagnon of DisplaySearch.
“Otherwise, you’re going to have people buying two pairs of 3-D glasses and just watching TV at home by themselves, and that is not going to be good for the industry.”