Panasonic’s first 3DTV hits the market this week in Best Buy stores.

LG 3DTVs are coming in May. Vizio models will start selling in August.

Sony is set to debut its first 3D television in June. It’s a 46-inch display that will retail for $3,875.

Bluray players capable of playing three-dimensions are coming. Sony’s PlayStation 3 can support 3D Bluray discs now.

Three-dimensional video games are coming.

Discovery Channel is working on a 3D TV network. So is ESPN.

Starting to feel pretty close to critical mass, no?

Don’t mistake the fledgling, aspirational three-dimensional attempt at new TV revenues with the mainstream adoption of HDTVs. People will not jump on 3DTVs with nearly the same energy. Mainstream penetration is only possible:

• When prices fall. I can get a good 46-inch HDTV with a crystal clear picture today for $700. The 3D model costs five times that.
• When content skyrockets. Nightly programming on non-premium channels will be necessary.
• When people feel they are missing something by not having a 3DTV, they will buy one. When the SuperBowl is broadcast in 3D, with players flying around your living room, and ball zipping past your nose. When Gweneth Paltrow walks past your coffee table on the 3D Oscars telecast. That’s when people will adopt 3DTVs en masse.

High definition TVs only caught on when all of the above occurred. They became affordable. Our local network channels started broadcasting in HD — for free, over-the-air. And the tipping point came when our friends and neighbors started getting HDTVs. The instant you saw an HD picture, you knew what you were missing.

There’s no guarantee that 3DTVs will ever go mainstream. But the gathering manufacturer support and development is a very strong sign that at the very least, consumers will get to make a choice on whether 3DTVs hit the big time.

Most new technologies never make it this far.

In his post today, Seth Godin talks about doing just five minutes of exceptional work per today. It’s enough, he says, because that would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.

In consumer electronics, this translates thusly:

• Call 10 consumers and ask them how they use your products today. Talk to each person for five minutes. That’s less than one hour total. Imagine the invaluable marketing insights you’d generate. Do this, and it would be 10 more consumer conversations than just about any other manufacturer has in our business will have today.
• Ask five people what words they use to describe your products. That would be five more than anyone else.
• Try to think about your products like grandmothers and grandfathers might. How would they perceive your devices, and the way you’re talking about them? Do that, and you’d probably be the only one doing that today.
• Come up with five single words — just five — that describe the lifestyle value of your products. (Helpful? Energizing? Simple? Intuitive? Freeing?) Do this, and you’ll have five more words than just about anyone else.
• Write a grammatically sound, interesting press release. You’d be the only tech company THIS WEEK to do so. Trust me.

I can write 50 more of these. Maybe one day soon I will. But for now, all of the above activities can be done quickly, and each will generate a significant competitive advantage for you. Because in consumer electronics, manufacturers rarely talk to consumers unless it’s about technical specifications.

Now imagine if you executed one consumer research activity every day. Just one. Time spent: no more than 15 minutes daily, on average. Resulting value and competitive advantage? Easily priceless.

What’s stopping you?

Here’s what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to say in January about consumers’ changing views on Internet privacy:

“When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was ‘why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’

“And then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

Problem is, the social norm is not driven by society. It is driven by inventive manufacturers with tremendous vision who make terrific products, in this case Facebook.

Before TiVo, recording television shows and movies to a hard drive that could be viewed at any time (no tapes!) was not the social norm.

Before Palm, keeping a calendar and task list on a handheld device was not the social norm.

Before Apple, listening to digital music files on tiny players was not the social norm.

Before Ford, driving around on four wheels was not the social norm.

Zuckerberg’s quote was in reference to Facebook’s loosening up of privacy terms. People don’t mind sharing their private lives publicly because it’s the new social norm, he said. Yeah, and Facebook made it that way. Without Facebook, that social norm doesn’t exist.

That’s a hell of a responsibility. And today’s top consumer electronics makers like Apple, Microsoft, Google and, yes, Facebook must be aware of their massive influence on society — and tread carefully and respectfully.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Sony is developing a number of products because it feels threatened by Apple’s increasingly strong position in the handheld device space. Sony is working on:

• A smart phone that plays and downloads games.
• A netbook-like electronic book reader.
• An online media marketplace that sells songs and videos.

All of the above should sound very iFamiliar (read: iPhone-iPad-iTunes).

Problem is, in consumer electronics, this desperate approach rarely works. Sony is attempting to create new technology from a position of defense, a position of scrambling to catch up, a position of self-preservation. Further, its trying to build on a weakness: According to the same WSJ article, Sony Ericsson saw its global shipments fall 41 percent in 2009. Sony also recently lowered its outlook for its PlayStation Portable device. I believe the biggest reason Sony is struggling in those mobile categories is because Apple is hammering them with the iPhone.

Which is why it makes absolutely no sense to invest money, manpower and attention to create new products which will also get hammered by Apple.

In today’s mobile device space, Apple is dealing from a position of strength — it has not only terrific products but consumer evangelists — while Sony deals from a position of weakness.

Instead, Sony should be focusing on areas of potential strength: the PlayStation 3 console, digital cameras and camcorders, and its Bravia LCD television. In those three categories it’s possible to argue:

• Sony was once THE leader in each category, but has recently fallen in with a “pack” of leaders.
• Consumers acknowledge and accept Sony as a leader in those areas.
• Given a relatively happy consumer base in each category, it’s still possible for Sony to regain the leadership position in each.

Every manufacturer has areas of weakness and areas of strenghts. It is always easier to build on strengths than on weaknesses. But Sony is making matters even more difficult for itself by trying to build on weaknesses desperately.

If you’re selling anything tech-related to consumers, create messaging intended to excite grandmothers: if you can convince them that your product is valuable, you can convince anyone.

Apple hasn’t had a great PR week. Yesterday, it announced a lawsuit against a competing smart phone maker for patent infringement. The day before, Apple said it discovered 11 minors working in at suppliers’ facilities.

The first piece of news is an expected part of being in he technology invention business. The second detail falls somewhere between shocking and horrific.

For most companies.

But not really for Apple.

Because Apple is the only consumer electronics company that has evangelists.

There are Apple evangelists in the media, so the bad news is presented a little more gently. (If you’ve never been to a consumer electronics trade show press room, 90 percent of the working media are doing their jobs on a Mac.)

There are Apple evangelists among consumers. So the terrible news is instinctively chalked up to an innocent mistake. An oversight.

It probably is. But diabolical assumptions come toward Apple at much lower rate than other manufacturers.

It’s a hell of a competitive advantage. The fallout for Sony or Samsung or Panasonic (all competent but “evangelistless”) would have been tremendously more negative.

Create evangelists, and nourish them like Apple. Then enjoy the results.

With advice, as with consumer electronics, the simplest approach is usually the most effective one. Which is why I’m launching the Market Share In a Sentence series — powerful consumer electronics growth techniques that are presented as simply as possible: in a single sentence.

In your product engineering, marketing, messaging, manuals, and public relations, simple beats everything (including fascinating) every time — so always aim for simple.

Many people have favorite authors, and they’ll buy every book that author writes. It doesn’t matter if the title or topic doesn’t sound immediately interesting. They’ll buy the book because it’s written by one of their favorite authors and everything this author writes is terrific.

In consumer electronics, manufacturers should strive to achieve Favorite Author status.

Apple has attained Favorite Author status for many people. Consumer will buy every iteration of the iPhone, for example, just because it’s a new version of the iPhone and they have no question it will be worth their investment.

Curiously, some financial programs enjoy Favorite Author status, with a lot of consumers buying each year’s new version.

Google also has Favorite Author status. It has enough trust among some consumers that this group will try everything Google offers: Gmail, Google Docs, Buzz, etc.

Attain Favorite Author status and you’ll get not only have a group of open-minded consumers eagerly awaiting – and, critically, buying – your next release.

About a year ago, Amazon.com’s vice president of electronics, Paul Ryder, told me that some of the most successful consumer electronics newcomers solved problems people didn’t know they had.

The Flip video camera, with its USB plug-and-play feature gets video onto the computer simply and immediately, without cables or additional software.

The Eye-Fi wireless memory card sends your digital pictures and videos over the air, via Wi-Fi, from your camera to your computer as soon as you walk into the house.

The Powermat charges your devices wirelessly, without having to plug each one into an outlet.

The Easybloom Plant Sensor analyzes your soil conditions and, after you plug it into your USB port, tells you which plants will thrive in that soil, and why a plant may be sick.

It’s not about creating problems. That’s unethical. It’s about making products that help people in ways they haven’t even imagined. It’s about solving problems people didn’t know they had.

Online product reviews, written by consumers for consumers, are one of the Internet’s greatest influences on consumer electronics.

They help people understand how their peers use the products they’re considering. They allow consumers to tell their stories. They create a flow of communication from peer to peer. Here’s what’s great. This product is a ripoff. Here’s how I fixed this nagging issue with this device.

But while consumer reviews are extensively utilized by consumers, they are wildly underused by manufacturers. Consumer experiences, cataloged and organized and searchable on major retail sites, are a goldmine of information for manufacturers.

It should be mandatory for your engineers to read these reviews so they can get a sense of how their creations affect real people. How are their products used? What features are most beneficial? There are countless points of enlightenment there for them.

Your sales, marketing and public relations departments should be required to spend 10 minutes reading reviews daily. It’ll give them an invaluable sense of how consumer think about, talk about, and use the products they’re pushing into the market.

And if you’re a bricks-and-mortar retailer (and your people possibly wear Blue Shirts), consumer reviews should be required reading for obvious reasons.

These reviews are free, and easily accessible and will dramatically improve your performance. There’s no excuse to not leverage them.