Consumer awareness of 3D TVs and Blu-ray 3D players has jumped by double digits in only six months, according to a study in February by market research company The NPD Group’s 3D 360º Monitor.
Consumers aware of 3D plasma TV awareness jumped from 21 percent in September 2010 to 32 percent in February, while awareness of 3D Blu-ray players went from 15 percent to 26 percent, and 3D LCD TVs went from 28 percent to 36 percent.
Two of the major pain points for consumers are still the price of the TV and the need to wear glasses. According to the report, price and glasses are becoming more of an issue for a greater percentage of consumers.
“Concerns about price and an aversion to 3D glasses both saw relative increases as inhibitors to adopting 3D televisions,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at The NPD Group. “However, as prices and price premiums for 3D TV decline, glasses are becoming a more prominent inhibitor, and are poised to overtake price.”
Prices of 3DTVs have dropped significantly in the past year, with the average selling price of 3D LCD TVs dropping from $2,683 in February 2010 to $1,705 in February 2011, while 3D Plasmas have dropped from $2,948 to $1,214, according to NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service.
The percentage of consumers citing a lack of content as an inhibitor decreased slightly; 68 percent of consumers interested in 3D TV identified Blu-ray movies as far and away the most popular type of content they were looking forward to using with their TVs, with slightly less than 40 percent expressing interest in sports and cable or satellite programming.
“Both movies and sports were important content drivers in the HD transition,” said Rubin. “However, while feature films provided a large library of content that could be readily converted to HD, there wasn’t packaged media that delivered on the promise of the entertainment experience as Blu-ray now provides for 3D.”
Nearly 2,000 respondents from NPD’s online panel completed the second wave of this February survey.