Any observer of those "plan-to-buy" surveys from the early days of HDTV know that consumers may hope to purchase a lot of CE products, but that's scarce evidence that it will happen anytime soon. With that in mind, TV viewers surveyed in an online (and therefore unscientific) tally of 3D options seem evenly divided between those wishing to eventually purchase a 3DTV set and those who think it's folly to even consider such emerging technology as the next-best-thing to follow HD and Blu-ray.
In an ongoing online survey earlier this week (presumably from a lot of early adopters and other tech-savvy users, considering the Web site) at EngadgetHD.com, more than two percent of those responding said they "already have" a 3DTV set (which sounds a bit high), while more than 11 percent said they plan to purchase a 3D set when the units start to become available from a handful of manufacturers later this year.
But a combined total of about 87 percent were pretty much evenly divided between saying that at some point "beyond 2010" they likely would make a 3D purchase (46 percent), while the second biggest group agreed with "No way, it's a silly gimmick" (41 percent).
3D for TV was very high-profile (in mostly beta and other prototype demos) at CES earlier this month. And there has been a great deal of 3D excitement from recent successes at the box office--notably the current mega-hit "Avatar," which won Golden Globes this week for Best Picture and Best Director in the drama category.
