Sony’s move into 3D is a response to the pattern that has existed surrounding Sony’s electronic division for the past decade (or so). Sony is positioned in the electronics market as a premium product, and they actually have done very well at capturing a large portion of market-share in the high-end products; in a large part because they are offering new features/technology. The problem is that they’re losing more and more market-share because by the time consumers care about a technology or feature every company is offering it; and the typical consumer doesn’t see the advantage of buying the expensive Sony product over the cheap off-label product.
To understand what I mean, Sony was pushing DVD players in the mid-to-late 1990s and Apex Digital became one of the leading DVD manufacturers for several years because they offered the first $100 DVD player. Sony was pushing HDTVs starting in the late 1990s, and today the budget lines from major manufacturers (and the no-name TVs) dominate the market in sales. Even Blu-Ray is showing this pattern as the Blu-Ray players that get people’s interest seem to be the players that are on sale for less than $100.
Basically, Sony wants people to care enough about 3DTV to rush out and buy a high-end (Sony) 3DTV today; and they are desperate not to have people take a wait and see approach that they have taken for everything else. To a certain extent the 3DS helps Sony (which is why they don’t want to bash it), but if people decide to try out 3D gaming by buying a $199 handheld or $300 PC monitor rather than buying one of Sony’s TVs it doesn’t really help Sony.
