US consumers purchase $55 million worth of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, despite the glasses

By Thomas Ricker posted Jun 25th 2010 6:58AM

It's early days yet, but NPD claims that revenue from US sales of 3D TVs and standalone 3D-capable Blu-ray players has exceeded $55 million in the first three months of availability. Mind you, this steady growth comes despite the absence of some major players. While that number might sound big, it's tiny in comparison to the total number of TVs sold each month in the US and, according to our friend Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD, sales are expected to remain small throughout 2010. Regarding those much maligned 3D glasses, only 10% of those surveyed by NPD cited "looking silly" as a main concern. Instead, the biggest concern was not having enough glasses on hand for everyone looking at the set. A concern driven by cost, undoubtedly, and a dearth of survey participants from New York's trendy Lower East Side.

Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/25/us-consumers-purchase-55-million-worth-of-3d-tvs-and-blu-ray-pl/

So what do you think??

That's what, 20K units in 3 months? In a country with more than 75 million of houses? It's not a relevant number.

yea was about to say what is price of a 3D TV and a 3D blu ray player and divide that and you got what the rich and famous wasting their infinite money just buying new tech?

I mean look at main concern, the availability of glasses for everyone.  So what do you do if you buy a new decked out home theatre system in 3D?  normally when you do that you want all your friends and stuff to come over and check it out adn watch a sweet ass movie.  So now what? you need like 10 pair of glasses for everyone to be able to watch?

hey i'm only posting news don't have a go at me, as for 20k worth of sales show your workings please:):)

I'm surprised, considering the lack of 3D content thus far.

They just need to make glasses cheaper.

HDTV penetrations at a turnign point where a lot of HD owners might be ready to upgrade or move the main tv to th ebedroom and buy a new one, and people without an dHDTV might as well buy a 3D

The hardware isnt priced too bad, the problem is the studios doing all the exclusive shit and not aligning as one unifed source pushing a unified idea. This happened with BD and HD DVD, now its happening with 3D....theyre so stupid.

People dont mind glasses, but confusing exclusive battles people hate. There should be unified glasses os people can bring their own to a friends whenever they want to watch a sporting event in 3D, and all marketplaces should have access to all brands, IE not just Best Buy overpricing the best 3D tv on the market, the Panasonic....

Exclusive software only with buying hardware doesnt supports the idea.....exclusives only work on established platforms, when somethings being introduced it muddies the waters and doesnt push any unified technology.

If 3D fails the companies have no one to blame but themselves.

I hav ebeen and will be a advocate for how 3D is the future, but if this keeps up im not sure it will ever take off outside of the theaters.

well first of all just subtract 3 zero's from the 55 million for the minimum of $1000 for sure that these will cost and you are down to 55,000. 

Now tell me what a typical 3D tv sells for in thousands, and/or a 3D tv a 3D capable blu ray player.  Is this 55 million also counting glasses cost?  TV roughly $2000?  Blu Ray 3D roughly $250?   Glasses (1) = $100

So your getting close to $2,500 for to be set up for a few people.  divide then either 55 million by that or 55 thousand by 2.5 and you get aroudn 20k.

Right now penetration is super rich people, celebs, and super tech freaks that need latest and greatest. 

Rich and famous come on its not that expenisve and its new not everyone knows about it actually its pretty cheap if you take in account what the big TVs were 6 years ago. I remember 100k for a gigantic Plasma Screen and 2k for a 3D TV with almost the same size nowadays. Its not that expensive and prices will go down. We will see a steady rise, sometimes I think all people talking it down just because they cant afford it. Its just 3 months and thats a pretty significant number wait for Holidays some more 3d Titles in 2011 3d will  be more significant and in 2014 it will be standard. I am pretty sure if the prices goes down people will talk differently its always the same game. Who needs a DVD Player who needs Internet who needs Flatscreen TV who needs HD who needs Bluray as soon as the people can afford it they buy it and noone looses a bad word about it. I saw that with everything with the Playstation 1-2-3 with DVD with CD Bruner with 19 inch PC monitors in the ninetys with Notebooks and mobile Phones.

Pfft who needs that shit its only for the rich ones I dont need the crap it will fail anyway. Like the people are pissed on the technology because they cant afford it. I dont need you if you dont want to be with me get lost you are ugly anyway. 2-4 years later everything changed. It always starts that slow.

If you ask what do we think, people will tell you what do they think. I'm not attacking you, I'm only telling what do I think, and I think that the number is irrelevant.

Number of sales  is approximately reneuve / average selling price. If ASP (including glasses) is about 3000 US$, the number of TVs sold is less than 20.000 units.

I just wanted to note that there are more than 100 Million households in the United States; it was something like 103 Million a couple of years ago. 

To put these sales into perspective, Sega bragged that they sold more than $100 Million in systems, accessories and games for the Dreamcast on its launch day of September 9th 1999.