Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TVs not selling

Monday 07 February 2011

It was with a fair bit of fanfare that we reported on Toshiba being first to the post with that Holy Grail of home cinema gadgets – the glasses-free 3D TV.

Yet it looks like the Holy Grail may be more of a poisoned chalice for troubled Tosh, as it turns out the public hasn’t been willing to hand over the readies.

A Toshiba executive revealed last week that just 500 of the larger 20in model had been sold over in Japan, and even fewer of the smaller 12in device – less than half the number Toshiba was hoping for.

Of course, there’s little evidence that the disappointing sales figures are a statement from the buying public about glasses-free 3D itself. With Toshiba charging the equivalent of £1,800 for the rather portly 20in affair, it’s easy to see where the reluctance comes from.

As is often the case it’s likely that Toshiba’s brave duo of specs-free tellies are simply putting down a marker for others to follow, and that sales figures will pick up once prices drop. Several of the big electronics giants had glasses-free 3D prototypes on display at CES last month, many of them with significantly larger screen sizes.

The same executive revealed that these bigger-screened options should start seeing the light of day in the latter half of the year. Hopefully they’ll be priced a little more reasonably.

Tags:

Toshiba, 3D, 3D TV