So first, what's 3D?
3D enhances the illusion of depth perception and is recently used on big movie projects like Avatar 3D, Clash of the titans and Alice in wonderland. To see the 3D effect in modern movies, you need shutter glasses, which are glasses used in conjunction with a display screen to create the illusion of a three dimensional image, the glasses contain a liquid crystal and a polarizing filter.(wiki).
The big advantage of these glasses is that the other colors in the movie can still be seen. After the image is received, the brain has to do the rest by transcoding the images to images with optical depth.
Why 3D?
There are several reasons why studio's make 3D movies, the first reason is because they want to attract people back to the theaters again (because of the internet these numbers are slinking). Secondly, to prevent people making their own camera versions from the movie at the theater, so they can illegally distribute them via the internet.
There are three way's to make a 3D effects containing movie, the first way is to shoot the movie with a 'normal' camera and edit the 3D effects in later on in the production process (like Walt Disney did, in Clash of the titans). The second way is to shoot the entire movie with special 3D camera's which contains two lenses (like James Cameron did, with Avatar) and the third way, which is only available for computer animated movies, is to re-render the entire movie (like Pixar did with Toy Story 1 & 2).
Only movies?
Of course 3D is nice in movies, but the manufacturers and television broadcasters are expanding their range of products and some are already offering television programs in 3D. Sony has planned a special offer later this year, when they offer a special blue-ray pack. The pack contains 3D glasses, a 3D blue-ray player and a 3D blue-ray, containing a 3D football match (The Netherlands VS. Japan) from world cup 2010.
There is a big opportunity for the developing world, because games already use 3D models to be rendered, the conversion and use is quick and easy, all you need a computer screen.
What do you need to watch 3D?
Because 3D is a special technique, to optimally view it you need special equipment which can project two different images at the same time on a different frequency, so the brain interpret the given data. For a movie theater they need special beamers and for televisions you need special 3D televisions which will be released in the near future.
The downside.
Although 3D is an amazing technique and a nice thing to give an extra dimension to the movie, the home use of this technique offers different boundaries and obstacles. There is the fact that the special televisions are expensive, the glasses are not universal, the glasses are expensive, some people get headaches from the 3D and no one wants to wear the glasses all day/evening.
Although there are some manufacturers (Philips, NEC) which have build 3D televisions which you can enjoy without the glasses, they are only build for advertising campaigns only.
