It's Time to Make 3D TVs a Thing Again

Multiple publications declared 2010 the year of the 3D TV because of the wave of popularity of theatrical 3D releases.

Four years was how long that was. By 2015, 3D TVs were a thing of the past, and by the following year, the last few manufacturers were out of production. Good ideas were overruled in the court of public opinion and doomed to be ridiculed as failures when it came to 3D TVs.

Why did 3D TV not work? Consumers were still shopping for bigger TV sets. The ability to display 3D content added cost to those TV sets, and required game consoles orblu-ray players capable of putting out that content just as physical media began to decline in favor of streaming.

There were also the glasses. Whether they were passive or active shutter 3D glasses, viewers at home had to wear them and keep track of them. They got dirty, they got lost, they weren't delivered to you in a sealed plastic baggie, and they were expensive to replace.

Yes, a failure. What if the timing wasn't right?

According to a report by A2Z Market Research, 3D TV may get another chance at glory as a consumer technology. According to a summary of the report and one of the firm's analysts, the global 3D TV market is expected to grow over the course of the next ten years. The firm isn't specifying the range of sales figures that 25 percent increase represents, but it is releasing more specific data about the market to clients.

The potential for glasses-free 3D displays, as well as live sports, commercial and medical applications for 3D sets, could be driven by the firm.

The 3D resurgence could begin in tandem with virtual reality in research and education, with different use cases than just watching a movie in 3D.

If manufacturing scales to bring down costs, TV makers develop new technologies that do away with the need for glasses and fresh applications for 3D like live sports and video games.

There are a lot of people who don't like going to stadiums. The disposable income is rising and people want to watch live sports from the comfort of their homes.