With the world's electronic giants racing to get their 3D TV's on the market, Sony is adopting a slightly slower pace when it comes to their launch. The electronics giant is releasing the first of its models on the Japanese market on June 10, with a worldwide release to follow soon after.
 
Sony has decided on a later release because of the prediction that their TV business will shift into high gear in the financial year to March 2011. The company has set a sales target of over 25 million LCD TV's for the period, up two thirds from its forecast for this year. Of this number, it aims for 10% of these sales to be 3D sets.
 
"The next 12 months are really a year when we think we can attack," Sony's senior vice president of home entertainment Yoshihisa Ishida said.
 
The full Sony range
 
Sony's first 3D TV's, the 40- and 46-inch models, come bundled with two pairs of 3D glasses and will cost 290,000 yen (US$3,215) and 350,000 yen.
 
In July the company will launch a further six TV's: the 52- and 60-inch models, that come with 3D glasses, and four "3D-ready" models that have built-in 3D circuitry but require the purchase of glasses and an infrared transmitter for full 3D viewing.
 
Included in each set of these "3D-ready"sets is a real-time 2D-to-3D convertor, that can take a conventional 2D television image and simulate a 3D image from it. This technology was demonstrated to work well on Tuesday when Sony showed footage of figure skating - the skater was in focus and some distance from spectators in the background.
 
The 40-inch "3D-ready model" (that requires the additional glasses and transmitter,) will sell for a retail price of 220,000 yen. The glasses are priced at 12,000 yen per pair and the transmitter, which sends out a signal to synchronize electronic shutters in the glasses, will cost 5,000 yen.