About Electronics

Gizmodo: After polling the U.S. a few months ago, Nielsen conducted a worldwide poll to gauge interest in 3DTV displays. SPOILER ALERT: less than 10 percent of those asked said they’ll buy a 3D television in the next year.

Another 15 percent polled said they might buy a 3DTV, but that’s not so promising when over 60 percent said they they definitely won’t buy a 3DTV. And when only narrowed down to North America, just 3 percent of North Americans say they plan to buy a 3D set in the next year. As far as 3D in the home goes, GigaOm is all doom and gloom, declaring 3DTV to be dead on arrival, and it’s tough to disagree. I sure as hell don’t want to deal with the glasses, especially when more than one person is in the room. Someday, when glasses-less displays arrive, maybe we can try this grand 3D experiment again, yeah? [Nielsen via GigaOm]

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TG Daily: Although it seems like everyone is calling it the next big thing, the majority of consumers are not that excited about 3D TV, and according to one study’s results, interest in the technology actually goes down after users give it a test run.

Nielsen conducted the study to see just how interested American consumers are in the new 3D TV market. It found that around 25% of “active TV shoppers” had some interest in buying a set. However, once they tried it out, that number plummeted to just 12%.

So why the extreme lack of excitement about the new technology? Well, blame it on the young people’s multitasking mindset. 89% said they became disillusioned by 3D TV because it is pretty much impossible to do anything else while watching. If you’re watching a 3D broadcast and commercials come on, you have to take off your glasses if you want to start texting or browsing the Internet. You have to be totally engaged to watch 3D content, which is fine at the movies, but apparently a big turn-off at home.

Around half of those surveyed also expressed disinterest about the requirement of wearing 3D glasses.

TV manufacturers and content providers are still bullish on the 3D market, though. It’s just becoming a stronger challenge. The trick now is to provide content that is so compelling, users won’t even want to do anything else while they’re experiencing it. 3D gaming will be a big part of qualming those fears.

All in all, though, those numbers are abysmal compared to the early excitement about the transition from standard definition to high definition. 3D adoption is going to be much more difficult.

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Electronista: The iPhone 3G’s price drop to $99 (approx. €71) is a large enough move that it could overhaul the entire cellphone industry, according to research by Nielsen.

Analyst Roger Entner believes the cut “completely changes” the worth of every phone already on offer and won’t just hurt smartphones, where the comparisons are more evident, but any limited “feature” phone that nears the price point.

Any cellphone over $49 (€35) is “kneecapped” and will look like either it costs too much to make or that the carrier is asking too high a price, Entner says.

The researcher expects Apple’s simple change to force changes in pricing. To more closely equal the 8GB iPhone’s pricing, device makers are likely to further cut their profit margins; carriers could alternately bear some of the cost by more heavily subsidizing phones.

A chance exists that carriers may recoup the costs of this by increasing the monthly fees, though Entner warns that customers may balk at having to pay more each month. Reductions in monthly rates are deemed unlikely to help, however.

Even an AT&T move would likely be seen as “scorched earth” policy as it would encourage other carriers to cut prices and give customers little reason to switch networks but still hurt revenues. Critics already anticipate that the company most likely to be affected by the cut is Palm, whose Pre while well received costs roughly twice as much and so far claims a faster processor and multitasking as its main advantages.

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TWICE: Nielsen, the media tracking agency, and Sony said yesterday they will collaborate on the development of a measurement system for video game network advertising that will help make gaming software a more competitive advertising platform.

Under the arrangement, Sony will share with Nielsen game network traffic and other data from its PlayStation3 (PS3) systems and PlayStationNetwork, including PlayStation Home.

Nielsen will then analyze and benchmark the data to create new measurements for calculating the reach, frequency and effectiveness of game network advertising.

Usage data provided by SCEA to Nielsen will include enabled first- and third-party software titles accessed through PS3s and PlayStation Network, the companies said. The initial rollout will begin in the North American market.

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Textually.Org: According to research by Nielsen Media Research, while all makes of mobiles have a wide spread of customer types some groups are more attracted to certain brands than others.  See if you fit the stereotype, as highlighted by the research:

Nokia : Family-minded / Middle aged managers / Balance seekers / Health conscious

Motorola : Fashion conscious / Under 24 / Fun seekers / Individualistic

Sony Ericsson : Ambitious young men / Professionals / Success driven / Individualistic

LG : Favourite of mums / Stay-at-home parents / Success driven / Harmony seekers

Samsung : Young women / Career focused / Success driven / Fun seekers

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TechDigest: A survey by Nielsen shows that of the 117 million active gamers in the US, 56% play games online, and of those, 64% are women.

Active gamers were determined as being over 13, having at least one games device, and playing at least one hour of games each week. Men outnumber women gamers overall, but not online.

The survey also looked at casual gamers, who tend to jump around from free demo to free demo without any particular loyalty, and found that they spent around £5 (around €7) per month on gaming.

More dedicated gamers such as those playing World of Warcraft spent around £15 (€22) per month, though a lot of that would presumably be for ongoing subscriptions. At the top of the pile came Xbox 360 owners who spent around £20 (€30) per month.

Most console owners have at least one platform for playing games – either more than one console or a console and a PC. The Playstation 2 took most market share, with 59%, followed by Xbox’s of all generations at 33%. The GameCube came in at 30%.

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