The 3DS Has A 3D Market All To Itself

There’s a reason people are excited about the Nintendo 3DS, and are not excited about 3D on a TV set: because nobody wants to wear those stupid glasses. And it’s going to stay that way for some time.

“The first challenge (for 3D TVs) is the inconvenience of wearing glasses,” Samsung’s Visual Display President B.K. Yoon told the Wall Street Journal.

“I believe that this will be possible on cell phones and other mobile devices, or monitors that require smaller displays…but supplying 3D TV without glasses will not be (available) in the next five to ten years.”

Yes, Toshiba is releasing a glasses-free “TV set” this December in Japan, but at $2800 for a paltry 20 inches (smaller than many computer monitors), it shows Yoon may be right about the length of time it will take before they become large (and affordable) enough to become widely adopted.

So for all the hype and money TV companies have poured into 3D, it looks like it’s going to be a Nintendo handheld (which will sell millions, and do it very quickly), and not an expensive flat-screen TV, that’ll be the driving force in 3D entertainment in the next few years.

Samsung Electronics Official: Glasses-Free 3D TV Unlikely In Next 5-10 Years [SmartMoney]