It's interesting computers came up as a comparison. I was thinking to myself that it was starting to resemble Japan's Sportbike market of the last 15 years until the economy tanked.
Basically, Japan's 'Big 4' (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki & Yamaha) came up with a 2 year lifespan for Sportbike models to live. Every two years they would put out a brand new 600 cc and 1000 cc bikes to replace the last models. So for enthusiasts, it became practically impossible to keep up with the 'latest and greatest' out on the street. It wasn't just horsepower increases, they were getting major trickle down technologies from MotoGP every other year. fuel injection, ram-air, radial brakes, fly-by-wire throttle, electronic ignition, traction control... it was getting truely insane! So if your bike was 3 years old you could bet, unless you were keeping up via the aftermarket, that your bike had fallen to the back of the pack. But finally, as a direct result of the world economy, Japan has softened their approach, tightened up on R&D, and started extending the live-span of their bike models.
I'd love to see TV manufacturer's learn the same leason. Stop throwing everything at us so fast, take your time, refine your product, and bring it out when it's a more mature technology, not in it's infancy. I think some good idea's sunk in the market because they either came out too early, and people got tired of waiting for it to evolve, or just had too many choices at their disposal. Who else here remembers when 'Virtual Reality' technology first came out... didn't you think by now we would all be playing every video game available in the virtual world? I know I did, I thouht forsure that was going to be the wave of the future! But it was short lived, I believe in part because they unleashed it before it was affordable. I remember seeing a 'Virtual Reality' home gaming system that cost something like $50,000 bucks! I'm not real sure whey they didn't sell like hot cakes??? [rolls eyes]
Had they been patient with the technology and brought it to market when people could afford it, I think it would have done a whole lot better. But nobody wants to wait, they want to push everything out the door as soon as they can. That's why I think 3D with glasses is destined to fail. And it's failure just might take 3D without glasses down with it as an innocent bystander. Had they waited until they had a TV that could display 3D without glasses, without side-to-side issues and all the rest of it, then I think 3D could have been THE next big leap.
