Why this Tech Giant is Doing Away with 3D TV’s

Posted by Louise Rice in May, 2020

If we think back to the turn of the 2010’s 3D viewing was the new technological trend that was simply blowing the general consumer away, but as you may have noticed, like most trends, this boom has now died out. If we could try putting this boom into context and try to place a starting point for this 3D craze, it would have to be with the release of James Cameron’s Avatar; which upon its release the 3D marvel really captured the public’s imagination smashing all box office records. Well 3D it was just cool again, and at the time it was seen as the future of entertainment, and then suddenly it was not. This, however, did not stop tech giants from jumping on the trend and soon after the film’s release, we saw a wave of 3D TV’s entering the market, this passage will detail why they have ceased to be produced, with a particular focus on Sony as they were a market leader at the beginning of this boom.

Why They Fell

Firstly, let us look at why 3D TV’s failed, one of the major issues that put consumers off of 3D TV`s was the number of parameters placed around using them. Now for a person to sit back and enjoy a simple film they would have to wear special uncomfortable glasses and be sat in a certain part of their living room; the consumer was now having to set their entertainment intake around the TV not the other way round. A consumer does not want to jump through loopholes in order to simply watch an episode of The Simpsons. 3D TV’s took the right to comfort away. It was a trend that was jumped upon far too early and that was the problem. Companies jumped on the train before the tracks were even built. So, let me now tell you what the consumer was really looking for and why Sony chose to change track.

Sony was the first real pushers of 3D TV’s back in 2010 and at first, the TV’s where a huge success, but what they soon realized from market trends was that this was a boom and bust situation, and seven years later they completely halted production, as a Sony spokesperson put “Based on current market trends we decided not to support 3D for our 2017 models.” What was meant by this was the consumer no longer cared about their TV being 3D or any other goofy gimmick; they were looking for quality of TV definition. This is why we have seen a new tech rise in that of 4k TV. If we look at one of Sony’s most recent releases what they focus on as a company is a quality; here is how it is marketed; LED, HDR, 4K, Ultra HD, and online compatibility. Companies like Sony know that the consumer is purely desiring quality of image now, and thus this is how it is started to be marketed.

Finally, a point which ties in with the last paragraph of this passage was the rise of online pirating sites. Television companies knew that they could not keep up with the engulfing world of these sites. Probably the first trailblazer of these sites was couchtuner, but the illegal stream sites industry boomed; there are now so many alternatives to couchtuner for streaming online. Sony can see that people were simply using their laptops to consume media; the TV was being left behind especially in a 3D model. So, they had to think what is the one thing TV can offer that laptops cannot? Picture quality. So, by taking the focus away from the aforementioned goofy gimmicks of the early 2010’s they could make an attempt at winning these pirates back.