A recent story at Reuters.com says that 3D TV hasn’t caught the imagination of consumers and that they are still largely sitting on the sidelines when it comes to a new TV purchase.

Even Internet connectivity hasn’t provided much of a boost to the ailing TV business, which has seen big-screen LCD and plasma prices sliced to unheard of levels as manufacturers try to kick-start the holiday buying season.

How about super-thin LED-backlit TVs? Those aren’t doing the trick, either. Instead, the hot items this year appear to be smart phones and digital cameras, which have also seen dramatic price drops.

The Reuters story quotes Frank Ingarra, a portfolio manager at Hennessey Funds, as asking why TV manufacturers thought it necessary to push a new generation of TVs right after many people bought their first flat screen sets. “People don’t understand the added benefit of 3D,” Ingarra said. “When you get into $2,000 TVs, you start thinking: ‘At what point do I really need this, and is it going to make my viewing experience that much better?”

Not surprisingly, the high cost of active-shutter 3D glasses – and their incompatibility with other 3D TV brands – has been a turn-off for consumers, according to Ross Rubin at NPD Research. Earlier research studies showed that some consumers are waiting for 3D technology to progress further, and are waiting for “competing technologies” to resolve their differences. By “competing,” I mean active shutter vs. passive 3D viewing, which uses much less expensive glasses.

The lack of content and the ill-advised exclusive 3D content bundles have also impaired 3D TV sales, in my opinion. There’s still not a lot of 3D content to watch yet, and in particular, the premium 3D Blu-ray titles that viewers really want to see, such as Avatar, are all locked up in long-term deals with TV brands.

On a related note, TVs equipped with Google’s search engine (read: Sony Bravia LCD TVs) haven’t been selling well, either. That could be evidence that consumers are voting for more of an app-driven approach to NeTV viewing (such as direct links to YouTube and Netflix) and don’t care to search through millions of videos on the Internet with a complex keyboard to simply “watch TV.”

The story pointed out that “…consumers realized they could find the same services, like movie service Netflix Inc, elsewhere” using lower-priced alternatives such as PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Blu-ray players (which are getting dirt-cheap now), and Apple TV and Roku boxes. (Anyone remember what happened to Web TV?)

At CES next month, we’re certainly going to see more cutting-edge TV products, although I think the emphasis on 3D will be toned down considerably from a year ago and TV manufacturer’s marketing efforts shifted more towards connected TVs and peripheral media players. Even though TV sales are weak now – a recession just can’t be overcome with marketing hype – the future of TV is clearly Internet connectivity.

Whether most of those connections take place through a TV or through a connected peripheral such as a Blu-ray player remains to be seen. In the meantime, consumers are content to sit on their checkbooks and credit cards for now, paying scant attention to 3D and Google TV as they rush out to buy the latest Droid, Samsung, Apple, or HTC phone to put under the tree…