The future’s so bright, I gotta wear polarized lenses
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
By Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence
Serving as a parallel to the economy, the focus on flat-panel form factors at CES this year shifted from extravagantly huge to lean. Even Blu-ray players were downsized, with Panasonic introducing a portable Blu-ray player and Samsung introducing a 1.5″-thick player that can be wall-mounted or used with an accessory stand designed to showcase its sleek profile.
The new thinness, though, was but one of the advances manufacturers highlighted in a shift away from emphasizing marginal improvements in picture quality. Broadband connectivity to movie rentals and widgets was a popular theme for near-term differentiation, while 3D was positioned as a change that would require a new ecosystem involving disc encoding and broadcasting standards — as well as, of course, silly glasses.
In the living room, it’s the TV that’s watched, not the viewer on the couch, so consumers may sacrifice a bit of their self-image to enjoy a 3D-enhanced image in private. Just look at the changes we’ve seen consumers make in public. Years before tiny Bluetooth headsets, someone apparently talking into thin air would be labeled crazy. Before the iPod’s easy concealment and small ear buds, unresponsive listeners would be deemed rude or catatonic. And the iPhone has unleashed a new group of people whose strange pinching and stretching mannerisms would otherwise arise suspicion of any number of neuroses.
At least nobody sitting at home doing the eyewear shuffle as they interrupt 3D immersion for bathroom excursion will be accused of thinking that they’re Dick Tracy.
Tags: Blu-ray, CES, flat-panel
Consumer Technology | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | 
January 20, 2009 12:18 pm
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