Despite the heavy promotion of 3D TVs, Japanese consumers still aren’t convinced that the technology is the way they want to go.
3D televisions are apparently the hot new technology of the future, and Sony has been particularly infatuated with the concept. Now that the company has started selling 3D TVs and 3D-ready PS3s, a survey has revealed that almost 70 percent of Japanese consumers have no desire to actually add the technology to their home entertainment systems.
Gaming news site Kotaku held a survey asking Japanese citizens if they were interested in purchasing 3D TVs. Nearly 9,000 people participated and responses indicated that 67.4 percent weren’t interested in buying such a TV set. 31.2 percent, meanwhile, said they were interested.
The primary reason that so many people seem to be avoiding 3D televisions is that they don’t want to wear glasses while they either watch movies or play games. 70 percent of the people who had no interest in a 3D TV said they didn’t like wearing 3D glasses, while 57 percent said the price was too high.
SCEA Senior Vice President of Product Development Shuhei Yoshida stuck to his guns and defended his company’s technology, saying, “with the latest technology, the glasses are light and you kind of forget you’re wearing them after a while.”
If 30 percent of the population ends up buying these kinds of televisions, that would be an impressive amount of sales. However, participants didn’t say they would definitely buy a 3D TV, only that they were interested in making such a purchase. Whether or not the survey accurately predicts buying behavior won’t be determined until electronics manufacturers reveal their sales numbers.
