back to article Microsoft Kinect goes gangbusters

During his annual keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the company had sold eight million Kinect devices in its first 60 days - three million more than expected. In the last two months of 2010, Kinect purchases went through the roof, boosting sales for Xbox consoles in the process …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Oli 1

    i still want one

    a surface that is...

    no i dont know what i would do with it, but damnit i want one!

    1. Jolyon

      Surf ace

      I reckon a coffee-table browser could be the thing.

      1. PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn

        theres a diy for something similar

        http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer?page=0%2C0

        biggest issue is the need for a short throw projector, ideally LED to keep the consumption and lamp changes low.

        because that is a little taller than a coffee table

    2. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Shame really

      Surface is Microsoft Tablet PC mk2. An idea that is sound but the commitment and execution is dire.

      It's a research project that hasn't turned into product yet.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    correction

    "Fifty million Xbox 360s were sold over America's holiday season"

    that would be Fifty million since its launch, and the number is worldwide.

    basically, he was happy that the number of sold consoles reached 50 million.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      adding a reference to my post

      CES: 8 Million Kinects Shipped

      http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1142767p1.html

      "Ballmer also announced Xbox 360 sales have surpassed 50 million units sold worldwide."

  3. Jad

    From What I've seen on the net ...

    "Steve Ballmer revealed the company had sold eight million Kinect devices in its first 60 days"

    What I'd like to know is how many of these found their way onto Xboxes ... the way the internet looks most of them seem to be on Windows XP/7 and Linux boxes :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If he has any sense....

      ...Ballmer won't care - sales are sales after all.

      Still, if he had sense, he'd be pushing development of support and tools for the kinnect box on Windows (possibly other?) platforms.

      For once, M$ has something productised that could be quite innovative, if they manage to exploit it for more than as a novelty gaming device before others do.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    He didn't say sold

    he said shipped. And in his case, shipped also includes intransit...

    Lame PR Spin...

  5. mego
    WTF?

    but how many people actually use this on their phones

    Um, quite a couple on smartphones actually...

  6. hplasm
    Gates Horns

    Shouldn't that be 'Kinect goes Xbox Buster'?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12121999

    1. Nigel 9

      Re : Shouldn't that be 'Kinect goes Xbox Buster'?

      WOW - Nice showing of a BBC News technology article, second only to Private eye in the field of spectacular accuracy and investigative journalism :-/

      The article boils down to two sections:

      1. A quote from one guy who rang into Radio 4 (says it all, really) and mentioned that after his warranty expired, the xbox died - so, story is "Xbox360 over three years old dies - SHOCK".

      2. Author then goes onto a couple of forum's, and copy/pastes two posts slagging off the kinect and how it destroyed their box etc etc.

      I'm not a fan of kinect by ANY stretch (nearly the same price as the console, stupid delayed way of pausing games. crap first wave of games which are more proof of concept than anything) but lets not jump on the "Accessory blows up console" bandwagon *just* yet.

    2. Mr Brush
      Gates Horns

      This happens every time the 360 gets a big release

      Guitar Hero 2 was the earliest one that I can recall, but if you visit the Xbox.com forums a few days after any major game or hardware release, you'll see a bunch of '$PRODUCT broke my Xbox' or '$Product gives you the RRoD' threads.

      Xboxes break all the time (I'm on my third), it's got nothing to do with Kinect, COD 27, Rock Band Drums or any of the other scapegoats.

    3. bex

      bull

      the bbc article is speculative crap with no basis in fact. If it was true it would be all over the place, the only articles in the internet about this link to the bbc one. I call poor reporting techniques, the bbc seem to have a spate of these recently, probably one shoddy reporter.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    HAHAHA

    "Avatar Kinect, will bring a player's avatar to life using facial recognition technology. This means an avatar will not only mimic a player's movements, but also their expressions."

    And? Besides, I'll believe it when I see it.

    "From spring, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to use Kinect to control their netflix experience. Users can pause, rewind and fast-forward streamed-movies with voice commands or gestures."

    Wasn't it supposed to do this out of the box? Oh.... I see, they took that out to make you buy it.

    "In his speech Ballmer revealed a clutch of Kinect-enabled experiences coming soon in 2011. "

    'Experiences' - pffft. SO..... that would be two then? Both completley naff. Wow, it's really looking to be a great year for Kinect.

  8. Nya

    Live

    But he did also say 30 mil Live subscribers...which is a much more impressive figure.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Give me a hardcopy right there...

    Who cares how many its sold? The news is its selling well. Its awesome tech and maybe I can at last pause, rewind, enhance (224 to 176) stop, move in, track, centre and zoom with just voice commands. The future is here.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      RE: Give me a hardcopy right there

      "and maybe I can at last pause, rewind, enhance (224 to 176) stop, move in, track, centre and zoom with just voice commands."

      You can't.

      MS is too busy thinking up ways of screwing every last penny out of you to actually do anything good with it.

    2. Radelix

      Quick

      Dont forget to attach a printer for a hard copy

  10. Bilgepipe

    Sure?

    "1.5 million WP7 devices were sold in the first six weeks of availability and its app marketplace continues to grow fast, with more than 100 apps added daily."

    Sure about that? Reports indicated that 1.5 million WP7 devices were /shipped to retailers/, not sold. There's a very large, smoke-and-mirrors-related difference.

  11. Atonnis
    Unhappy

    Hmm

    I enjoy my Kinect but seriously:

    1. Netflix and Hulu Plus - umm, no. Doesn't mean anything to me. Can't use either of them.

    2. Avatar Kinect - so I can now have the thing I don't use at all make stupid expressions - could be fun for all of 5 seconds. What an absolute waste of time. I ask the question seriously - does anyone ever actually DO anything with their avatars?

    3. Surface - would probably be better still being classed under Microsoft Labs. It's just not practical as yet, and until there's a point to having it at home or in business, it really should just stay in R&D until they come up with something useful.

    4. Cut/Paste - well, it's something a few people want, but I'd have to say I haven't seen a single use for it on my WP7 device as yet. Clever design has made the things I would c/p in files accessible just by tapping them. Guess I prefer writing my own stuff.

    5. Kinect - as I said, I enjoy it, but really it needs some key functionality like 'xbox turn off' and 'xbox dashboard' from inside games/media. Being able to finish up playing and get up saying 'xbox turn off' almost as an afterthought would be a simple yet nice touch. For parents 'xbox parental control override turn off' could force kids to actually go to bed....so many little things that could be useful. I've also yet to see that advertised martial arts combat game from the pre-launch videos.

  12. Dan Paul
    Black Helicopters

    Did no one read the comment about "Surface"

    I'm surprised there are no comments regarding Balmers statement that "Surface" would enable an LCD display screen to act like a camera.

    If you thought Pform was bad...just wait until your TV or Monitor allows advertisers to see you watching what they display on the screen so they can tune the sales pitch to your glazed over facial expressions.

    Or worse, in the style of Orwell, the "guverment" can spy on you in your own living room.

    Wanna bet we have a worm in 2 years that takes advantage of this?

    I hope there is a tool that let's you know who's watching whom.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Headmaster

      @Dan Paul

      calm yourself down a bit. You must have watched many anime/movies where the characters talk to each other over the phone and _look_ at each other. This is not the same as what we currently have with cams, where everyone is looking at the screen and therefore appear to be looking at something else from the other end.

      this "Surface" might be able to give us this natural way of looking the other person in the eye while talking to them using the PC.

      Other then this, I honestly don't see the difference between having the "Surface" and having a webcam. _Both_ will have the same security fears.

      1. Dan Paul

        You can't see the difference?

        Honestly, you can't see the difference between a webcam and a two way LCD screen????

        The difference is you can unplug the webcam and be damn sure no one is watching you.

        An LCD TV/Monitor that can provide two way visual communication scares me because you would NEVER know if someone was watching back.

        This is especially true with the insecurity of MS Software.

        1. dogged
          Boffin

          scaremongering

          a) I don't see the difference at all. Think logically, Dan Paul. A DVI/HDMI lead is output only. In order to get input you'd need a second lead back to the main processing hardware (like the USB cable on your webcam). If you're scared, unplug it.

          b) "This is especially true with the insecurity of MS Software."

          I would like to see ratio in print, from Sophos or somebody similar which details number of discovered insecurities against worldwide user-base. Is MS software really insecure or are a lot more people trying to hack it than linux/osx./other?

          I suspect the latter. Because it's everywhere. It's the same reason people write cop shows for TV but not for semaphore.

          1. Wize

            @dogged

            Who knows what the connector will be in the future?

            Besides the HDMI spec does allow two way communication (at least for security which can make your player drop to low def if your TV doesn't give the correct reply on protected Blurays). Even the old SCART standard allowed simultaneous two way video.

            And if you put them in a laptop, its harder to cover the lens with a bit of tape.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    8m Cretins

    happy to spend money on something badly broken....

    I don't know a single person that's happy with Kinect, infact I know several that have taken them back because they are pants.

    So either there are 8m fools, or Steve is telling white lies about numbers.... ( We already know that his shipped figure means shipped from manufactuer to warehouses and not sold to consumers).

    I'm guessing there is a very big slow boat from China somewhere with ALOT of Kinects on it, that allows Steve to spin this lame PR Bullshit.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like