Placing bets that 3D will move into households, tech firms at Computex Taipei are flaunting their latest notebooks, monitors and LCD TVs that utilize such technology. However, pundits said there would be quite a wait before 3D makes it into consumers’ homes.
Taiwanese firms, including Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技), Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) are among those at the world’s second-biggest tech trade fair trying to attract international buyers’ attention with a slew of 3D products.
Gigabyte is displaying a 15.6-inch 3D notebook, which it expects to be on the market by September.
“We are currently planning to launch one model,” Vanessa Lo (羅婉玲), Gigabyte’s procurement project manager, told the Taipei Times at the expo yesterday. “We are going for more than 15 inches as larger panels let users take in 3D images more comfortably.”
Different companies are using various solutions to tailor make the 3D effect, and in Gigabyte’s case, it is adding a 3D filter on the notebook screen to project a 3D image.
That solution means the company can lure buyers with price tags lower than NT$40,000 (US$1,240), although the filter coating comes with the disadvantage of limiting the viewing angle if the audience is too far away from the screen’s center, she said.
Meanwhile, Micro-Star is touting its 3D all-in-one (AIO) PC as the industry’s first such product.
Equipped with a 24-inch LED touchscreen panel, the “Wind Top AE2420 3D” comes with the company’s proprietary 3D Station technology, which it matches with 3D Infinity shutter glasses.
The combination of these solutions will provide consumers with a flawless 3D video experiences, Micro-Star said.
Despite companies placing large bets on 3D wares becoming the next “it” technology, panels gathering at a forum held on the sidelines of Computex yesterday said it would take at least three more years for the technology to gain mass acceptance.
“This year is the year in which 3D products start to gain shape, but the market will mature in three to five years,” STMicroelectronics NV’s regional vice president Yu Lee said.
In terms of indulging in the 3D world without putting on the special-effect glasses, the European chipmaker estimates that it will take four to six years to overcome technological barriers.
“There are a lot of jobs to be done from the panel side to view 3D without glasses,” he said.
Another tricky issue is the lack of 3D content in the market.
Yu said content providers are dedicating more efforts toward such productions in order to accelerate market uptake.
More than 50 Hollywood flicks using a 3D format will be debuted in the next 18 months, he said, adding that broadcasting sports programs, such as the FIFA World Cup, in 3D will help entice soccer fans into the 3D concept.
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