Sony dupes Samsung and LG by offering 3D TVs with 3D gaming

Sony, coupled with the anxiety of Samsung's market dominance in LED 3D TVs and Panasonic's supremacy in Plasma 3D TVs, recognized the importance of distinguishing the Sony brand for exactly what it is: an expansive line of products.

In any one market, Sony may showcase glimpses of power, innovation, and superiority, but it is seldom that Sony ever completely controls one market.

With LCD TVs, LG just recently surpassed Sony as the second highest selling LCD supplier behind Samsung, who now controls a whopping 21.6% of the market. Sony controls just about half of that at 11.3% of the market. Not to mention, of the 300,000 3D TVs already sold, Samsung accounted for 270,000 of them, leaving just 30,000 spread out among the other 3D TV suppliers.

In gaming, sales are spread out amongst three key players: the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation3. Although Sony's sales of the PS3 have taken off recently, the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PS3 are very closely matched. The forecasts for 2010 indicate Sony will sell 14 million PS3s, Nintendo will sell 17.5 million Wii's, and Microsoft will sell 10.5 million Xbox 360s. Either way, there is no clear leader.

The story is the same for Sony's Reader, camcorders, cameras, and laptops. Sony is a key player in each, but certainly not the market leader.

But perhaps that is exactly what Sony believes its brand should be: a preponderance of products affixed together to make one strong line of products.

Sony's recent announcement to offer a free 3D firmware update and 3D games for the PlayStation3 then makes a whole lot of sense considering Sony's launch of it's XBR-LX900 series of BRAVIA-enhanced, edge-lit LED 3D TVs.

The 3D TVs are available for pre-order and come in 5 sizes (40", 46", 52", 55", and 60") that range in price from $2,100 to $5,000. Although the 3D Blue-ray will not be available until July, Sony on select models, will provide active 3D glasses along with the standard features of MotionFlow Pro (prevents image flickering), BRAVIA Internet Video, and a 2D to 3D up converter.

Releasing 3D gaming at the same time as its highly anticipate 3D LED BRAVIA series is no doubt a big move on Samsung, LG and Panasonic. It seems the best Samsung and LG can do is offer a couple of exclusive 3D movies with their 3D TVs and Blue-ray players. Only Sony has the capabilities to pair 3D TV with 3D gaming.