Kokomo:
Tell me 'Trip', as a matter of interest, are there any 3D TV channels in the States?
In the UK there are and this could have an affect upon its eventual take-up by consumers, just as HD TV channels have helped accelerate the adoption of HD TVs. The subscription based Sky sports channels are very popular in the UK and sports fans have enthusiastically embraced (and paid for) the broadcasts in HD. Now they are broadcasting in 3D, many fans may be very tempted.
Without researching it, I'd say no. I don't know of any channels, but I understand there may be special events that have been broadcast in 3D.
That being said, I think you're right that the two could have been expected to correlate, but at this point I'm pretty skeptical. Only a few months ago I mentioned how 3D was failing to inspire the sort of zeitgeist that swept people into the HDTV/Flat Panel revolution. Now I entertain clients who are asking about integrated apps and streaming video apart from a traditional cable satellite service. These are things that with (so far) less marketing push are already resonating with the buying public.
I'd be very surprised if anyone still sees 3D as inevitable. TVs that operate as online platforms seem much more inevitable and much more likely to drive consumer behavior. I've spent a lot of time playing with Sony's TVs and while they have a lot to work out (primarily that aside from Netflix & Hulu there isn't much worth exploring) it's easy to see that a TV that works this way is clearly the near-term future.
Due to the way that television was always tied to junky commodity hardware as a part of the subscription, the "TV Platform" has seen startlingly little innovation when compared to phones and computers. It's very likely that someone (maybe Apple, maybe Sony, maybe an upstart like Boxee) will disrupt the cable/cablebox paradigm the way that Apple did with the iPhone, making the hardware less of a commodity and stripping it of the type of branding that made it seem worthless and not worth developing.
It will be interesting to see how our upcoming TVs fare and weather the future will be one where the "box" and the TV are integrated or where the TV is more of a monitor that can connect many boxes. I, for one, don't worry about Apple making a TV because they'd likely lock down the platform to exclude (or near as makes no difference) other services that aren't currently integrated into their platform.
There is scarcely anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey. - John Ruskin