3D TVs Account for 10% of Sony LCD TV Sales in 2010, Will Grow to 40% by 2012

3D may not be overly widespread right now, but as the display mode gains traction, so will sales of 3D TVs, and it seems that Sony's own 3D TV business is expected to grow in share by quite a bit over the next two years.

As consumers may or may not know, the main characteristic of 3D panels is that they have a refresh rate of at least 120 Hz.

This refresh rate allows the display to render two sets of images at 60 Hz at the same time, image sets that are synchronized by a pair of 3D glasses.

Even more recently, some panels have appeared that do not need such glasses, like the 23-inch monitor from EIZO and some models made by Toshiba, among others.

Granted, the technologies that do away with glasses are not perfect, but progress is undeniably being made, meaning that the share of 3D panels will keep growing.

As far as Sony is concerned, it already has six experience centers for 3D displays set up in Taiwan alone, at the ongoing IT Month (December 4-12).

This is in tune with the outfit's plan to eventually gain dominance on this market, according to a Digitmes report that cites Kenji Sakai, chairman and managing director of Sony Taiwan.

Sony's Fiscal Year 2010 is expected to conclude in March, 2011, and 3D TVs are expected to account for about 10% of its total LCD TV shipments.

For those interested in numbers, Sony hopes said total LCD sales to be of 25 million units.

It was also revealed that outsourcing orders will reach 50% of all LCD TVs in FY 2010, for a value of US$15 billion.

Moving forward, the company hopes to keep encouraging 3D, even aiming for sales of such TVs to come to make up 40% of its full sales amount by the end of FY 2012.