By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY, NSW: Sony is preparing its 3D TV launch next year and says that retailers will be winners with the new technology.

Just how successful 3D TV will be is ultimately up to the consumers, but the industry has to be able to communicate the benefits of the technology and retailers still need to sell it.

“The consumer will be the ultimate arbiter of whether 3D TV will be a success,” said Sony Australia senior product specialist Audio Visual, Craig Jackson.

“Some people already have a mindset about it from the 80s, they think red and blue glasses and going to the cinema but this is a very different type of 3D and the application for it is broader than Blu-ray discs and movies, there’s the gaming, and down the line, normal television might have the infrastructure for 3D broadcasts.”

While there are high hopes for the new technology, Sony is realistic about initial sales, but optimistic about the effect it will have on the industry.

“3D will certainly not be 100 per cent of TV sales next year,” said Jackson. “But over the next few years, 3D will become something very similar to Motionflow technology that we all come to accept as it becomes part of the industry and the customer acceptance of it will grow.

“3D will be great for the retail stores and the industry as a whole. As a customer puller, something to get people into the stores, I can’t think of anything like it in TV in the past 10 to 15 years — it’s almost as big as the introduction colour TV for getting people into stores to have a look at it.”