Mike Bantick
Saturday, 01 May 2010 11:19
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
You are about to be bombarded by advertising for the next leap in home cinema experience, HD 3D TV. But will this hype actually have you salivating over your next home entertainment purchase, or can only gaming or porn save HD 3D TV from the gimmick graveyard.
The natural cycle of new tech goes thus: New shiny tech is announced (The Wireless, CD, DVD, Flatscreen TV's, The Lagerphone etcetera ) and the PR hype machine whirs into action.
At release there may be a crowd of technophiles line-up at the retail store, some the day before, shivering through the night, just to be the first to lay their hands-on the new device. They will outlay outlandish wads of cash or credit in order to quickly get their new baby home, remove the bubble wrap swaddle and suckle the new purchase to a household power outlet.
After the initial buzz, there is a significant percentage of the modern population that contain and extra 'common sense' gene that, while envious of the line-upee's , realise that fantasy gismo can wait.
At least for a short while, until the inevitable conjunction of needs versus wants ratio reaches equilibrium to the PR Hype and price quotient.
It is a complex formula, one that marketing people the globe over struggle to get right on a daily basis. It is their job to make desire overwhelm sense. Apple is the obvious master of this right now, with an army of zealots ready to throw out their recently purchased iPod, iPhone, iMac or iSense to buy the latest shiny, but only slightly improved product from Curpertino.
But out of the dust of the previous tech wars (Blu-ray versus HD DVD, VHS versus Betamax, Monkey stick versus Lagerphone) we see a new one abrewin'. This one is a little different however, it is not so much a battle between technologies, it's a battle between Hype merchants and consumer's needs versus wants ratio.
CONTINUED on Page 2