Not the time to enter the third dimension

With the blockbuster smash of James Cameron’s Avatar already making $429 million in the domestic market, everyone is beginning to wonder how they can match the success. But oversized blue aliens are not the only thing popularized by the film. Avatar has managed to thrust 3-D technology into the mainstream and suddenly, the industry thinks everyone wants more. The International Consumer Electronics Show held last month in Las Vegas was mostly dedicated to 3-D enabled devices, which makes one wonder – is this the look of the future?

It seems that the industry is overly optimistic about the impact Avatar has had on its market. Just because an audience was willing to put on 3-D glasses in the dark privacy of a movie theater does not mean they will be willing to do so on their couch. Unfortunately, the 3-D televisions that are being produced by vendor companies like Sony, Samsung, LG Electronics and Toshiba all require the viewer to don those dorky glasses if they want to get in on the action.

While companies display these new television sets, no one seems to be asking the most important question – will anyone actually pay for this new technology? It’s not the first time consumers have changed hardware in an effort to keep up with the times, but for families hit hard by the recession, it is hard to imagine they’ll make the change when many just upgraded to high definition television sets.

The price tag for these snazzy new 3-D TVs is estimated to be about $2,000. Considering that only a handful of 3-D enabled channels are in the works, there might just not be enough bang for your buck for the purchase to be worth it.

The problem is that the industry is trying to capitalize on a technology that is not fully developed yet. In fact, Samsung had a prototype of a 3-D television on display at CES that does not require glasses – unfortunately, it is still three years away from being in full production. So while some may choose to adopt this technology early on, many more will probably wait until a remote control is the only auxiliary component to watching their television.

Here is my plea to the entertainment industry: please wait until the technology has caught up with your ambitions. We all want the future to be here now, but in the case of 3-D it is just not the case. It is bad enough that movies such as Final Destination, Coraline and Beowulf have already price gauged audiences into watching them in 3-D. No one needs the upcoming releases of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Shrek: Forever After and Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D as good as Avatar (and allow me to view them without the ugly glasses), I’ll be happy to start a love affair with the new technology.