3D Smartphones, Yes! 3D Television with Glasses Required, No!

About a week ago I read an article in the Joongang Daily that was completely devoted to a standards dispute between two different standards for 3D television, both of which require that the viewer wear specially-purchased glasses!  It turns out there are two kinds of 3D technology in use:  active shutter glasses and passive polarized glasses.   Read the article if you're interested in further details.
Last year I toured Samsung Electronics headquarters in Suwon with some international visitors and had a chance to personally try out 3D television, with and without glasses.  I will go on record here and now, predicting that any 3D television technology that requires the use of glasses will likely be a non-starter in the global market and may serve a small niche market at best.  For the reasons why, ask anyone who has worn glasses and think about how this relates to the television viewing experience, especially when a person is out of the home or office, and "on the go."
Consequently, I was very interested to read in the Chosun Ilbo that LG Electronics is set to debut a 3D smartphone at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month.   It reportedly allows a viewer to see 3D content without glasses, at a distance of 30-50 cm from the screen.  Now this is a technology that makes sense and will seem natural to users.  Expect to see 3D television become popular on smart phones and small devices, long before it (at least the type that requires glasses) hits the big screen.  If you have good arguments against this scenario, I'd like to hear them.

TV Stations Start Broadcasting to Mobile Gadgets---In the U.S.

Why, you might say, do a post about a development in the United States on this blog which deals with Korea's Information Society? Simply to make the point that the U.S. and other countries are following Korea's lead, four years later. This also happened earlier with social networking, as the founding of Facebook and MySpace in the U.S. followed Korea's Cyworld by about four years. Digital multimedia broadcasting was introduced here in 2005 and proved to be a big hit with consumers. So much so that during certain dayparts, more people in Korea watch television on mobile devices than on conventional television sets. Those interested in developments in the U.S. can read the full article in the New York Times.

Mobile TV Penetration in Korea Reaches 22 million

The Korea Times reports that the number of Koreans subscribing to mobile TV services, both free and paid, has reached 22 million, or about 45 percent of the country's population.  TU Media, a unit of SK Telecom and the country's sole provider of pay satellite DMB services, reports that it now has 2 million customers, up from 1.3 million at this time last year.   The country's three mobile carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG report that they have sole 20 million handsets equipped to receive free terrestrial DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) telecasts.  Thusfar, South Korea's experience with DMB has proven several things in the marketplace:

• People will watch television on mobile devices.  The long commutes faced by many Koreans who live in urban areas no doubt contributes to this viewing.
• Although some people will subscribe to mobile television, in large numbers they prefer free, advertiser-supported services.
• Korea's terrestrial DMB operators are still not bringing in enough advertising revenue to support the service on a sustained basis

With such large numbers of viewers, it seems that mobile television is here to stay in the Korean market.  As we move into the era of mobile internet, television will also be part of that mix (e.g. CNN, BBC or Youtube video).