Rather than spam you with every little 3-D news item coming out of CES 2011 here in Vegas, I'd like to share the above pie chart, created by Nielsen after a survey of thousands of people, which basically says that nobody cares about 3-D TV.
Pay close attention: The biggest two pieces of the pie are "definitely won't" and "probably won't." That accounts for 76 percent of the market. But here's the key finding: 16 percent "may nor may not" buy one.
The most 3-D-friendly interpretation of this is that these people are waiting to see what happens. I agree. With enough Blu-ray movies, full support from game consoles, and an interesting selection of non-premium 3-D cable channels, 3-D might carve out a healthy niche. On the pessimistic side, however, the "maybe" people may just know the dirty secret of the TV business: Every pay-extra feature eventually becomes standard.
Let's put it another way: A far greater percentage than 24 (the percent that inclues both the definites and the maybes) may end up owning 3-D TVs in the coming years. But some may not even know it — and the majority won't care.
Wilson is in Las Vegas all week covering the Consumer Electronics Show, culminating in a live one-hour streaming video show on Friday, co-hosted by XM Radio personality and tech commentator Mario Armstrong. For updates on all the tech news that's actually relevant to you, be sure to check technolog.msnbc.com. And don't forget to follow Wilson on Twitter, and shoot him any questions you might have about the massive barge of tech news currently headed our way.
