The internet is abuzz today about a report in the recently released “3D Display Technology and Market Forecast Report” where DisplaySearch, a market research and consulting firm, forecasts that 3D displays will become a $22B industry, with 64Million TV’s deployed by 2018.

The market for 3D displays—which is encouraged by the recent success of 3D cinema—is forecast to take off in 2010, providing a welcome boost to the electronics industry. “3D displays are taking off with consumers due to increasing availability of 3D content. In addition, 3D standardization has also been addressed or is being evaluated in several 3D organizations,” noted Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch.

64Million seems like a lot, and if a sucker’s born every minute then they’ll have to sell one about every 5 seconds (ha ha, I made a funny).  By 2018, I’ld say it’s definitely possible, but mostly because a significant portion of existing consumers will have to go buy something to replace existing equipment.  What I take issue with is their prediction on the “Driving force” of 3D technology:

  • Mobile phones will be the largest 3D display application on a unit shipment basis in 2018, with 71 million units with 3D capability.
  • The largest screen size category for 3D display shipments will be 1-4.x”, due to demand from mobile phone and digital camera/camcorder applications. The second largest size range will be 40-49”, due to TV, public display and 40+ monitor applications.

While 3D is neat and all, I can’t envision any possible scenario where glasses-based 3D becomes popular on mobile phones or camcorders.  On camcorders would require 3D-capable recording functions, which are still very early in development and definately not ready for deployment to the masses.  On mobile phones, one has to note how people ridicule bluetooth headsets right now, and wonder what will happen to people wearing 3D glasses around all the time.

Maybe Back To The Future’s “3-D” was just ahead of his time?

3D Display Revenues Forecast to Reach $22B by 2018; 3D-Ready TV Shipments to Reach 64M Units – DisplaySearch.