the next big thing in television

Sony is attempting to pick up customers with new 3D sales after falling behind in flat-panel TV technology.

A third to a half of the Sony TV sets by March 2013 will have added 3-D features.

Sony executives have said that Sony will build its own LED display technology, to rival competitors like Samsung Electronics of South Korea.

Up to now, Sony has had to buy panels from Samsung.

Sony has said it hopes to surpass $11 billion in sales from 3D-related products by 2013.
the industry's hopes of getting consumers to buy 3D TVs "ambitious." It could be years before mainstream consumers are lured by lower prices and a broader selection of movies and TV programs, he noted.

That's a sentiment tech analysts share. Many think that consumers may not like having to wear special glasses for 3D at home. Price could be another hurdle. None of the major Japanese electronics companies has said how much consumers will have to pay—and they will have to pay more than the usual high-definition TV—for a 3D set.

But here's where exposure could play a key role. Hollywood studios have announced more than 30 movies that will be shown in 3D in 2010. Tech manufacturers are betting that as movies draw bigger crowds, an increasing number of consumers will get over their resistance to glasses. And if the Blu-ray Disc Assn. approves standards for 3D movies later this year, as is expected, Hollywood could begin releasing movies in 3D within months, industry executives say.

Of course, movies might help create the market but alone won't sustain it. "For 3D to be truly mass-market consumers will want not only movies and games but also live events, sports, and other programming," such as nature films, says David Wertheimer, who heads the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center. (The ETC receives funding from the tech companies.)

The benchmark for success, according to Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, chief technology officer for Panasonic's North American Operations, is to reach 2 million homes—about 2% of the 111 million households–in the U.S. "Get over that number in the U.S. and you break into the mainstream," he said, during an interview at Panasonic's Hollywood Lab, in Los Angeles in July.