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Kinect is fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history
- makmanalp 16y agoIs it a possibility that Peter Klein is pulling this out of his ass? I've yet to see a Kinect at a house / dorm, but when Furbys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby) came out, boy were they everywhere.
- chaosmachine 16y agoFurbies go anywhere. No one's kid is dragging their Kinect around with them.
- ericmsimons 16y agoRight now it seems to be really trendy with teenagers and kids. I'm sure many families have purchased them but I think there are significantly more teen hipsters that have jumped onboard ATM.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoYour theory that millions of teen hipsters are most responsible for the popularity of kinect lacks merit. From what I've seen the kinect is very popular with casual gamers and non-traditional gamers, typically adults.
- ericmsimons 16y agoI don't have a theory. I was simply stating my experiences with Kinect owners; most of them were teen hipsters. I never said that this was the actual statistic (seeing as I don't even have numeric data to back my opinion).
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago>"most of them were teen hipsters" What do you mean by "teen hipsters"?
- ericmsimons 16y agoAges 13-21. "Teen hipsters" was more of a joke than anything, since I'm 19 :P
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoIt was more the hipster bit that I was querying ... the definition (or at least use) appears to have altered a lot in the last couple of years. I think you mean what I'd call a "fashion victim".
- SwellJoe 16y agoI would think it's the same kind of people who bought the Wii. I'm planning to pick up a Kinect, and I also stood in line at 3AM to buy a Wii that first Christmas (the first dedicated video game machine I'd owned since the Atari 2600). But, so far, the games for Kinect look dull. I'm waiting for the equivalent of Resident Evil 4 on the Wii, which is one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in ages. Sports and fitness and dance games are fun, and I have bought some of those kinds of games on the Wii, but I don't really feel they justify adding more junk to my house. Hell, if they'd come out with another credible RE title, or some other really high quality shooter, I'd buy it. But, the Wii hardware just isn't up to spec for modern games. So, yeah, I agree with you. I don't think Kinect is hard core gamers, just like hard core gamers didn't necessarily buy Wii.
- cma 16y agoClearly someone is building a quadrocopter army.
- mitko 16y agoactually, people in my lab are recently trying to put a kinect on a quadcopter: they got two kinects just in case :)
- Devilboy 16y agoI love the work coming out of that lab! Everyone on DIYDrones said that the kinect wouldn't work on a small quadrocopter and then BAM only a week later we get a video proving them wrong. Very impressive!
- IznastY 16y agoI have two friends with kinects, and thinking about picking one up myself.
- Encosia 16y agoI've got one - my first console purchase since a Sega Dreamcast in the 90s. I think the more people that experience playing them, the more they're going to sell.
- wisty 16y ago8 million in 60 days isn't bad. That's 48 million a year. Well over half the estimated yearly sales of the iPhone (70 million). This might be the fastest selling first 60 days for a new product, but it's an upgrade to an already popular platform.
- j18490 16y agoThat's not a good comparison. iPhones don't belong to the consumer electronics category. Also, the majority iPhone sales are on an upgrade of a previous version as well.
- tjogin 16y agoKinect upgrades the Xbox 360, while iPhone replaces the previous model.
- bruceboughton 16y agoI bought an xbox for the Kinect (not the other way round). I'm sure I'm not alone.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- stcredzero 16y agoI'm considering it too.
- masklinn 16y ago> That's not a good comparison. iPhones don't belong to the consumer electronics category. What are you high on? Of course cell phones and smartphones belong to the consumer electronics category.
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y agoI rarely down-vote, but from the guidelines found here: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In Comments .... When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." There is no need to imply that someone is on drugs to be making an assertion with which you disagree, and the antagonistic tone tends to create argument and not discussion. Perhaps better would be to ask for the reasoning behind the position held. "I would've thought that iPhones do belong to the consumer electronics category. Could you explain otherwise?" Such an open question tends to foster constructive discussion. Your point needs answering, but I suggest there are better ways to make it. http://www.penzba.co.uk/SoothSayer.html http://www.penzba.co.uk/SoothSayer.html
- ericmsimons 16y agoI wonder how many of these were sold to anxious hackers :)
- acgourley 16y agoat least 7 or 8.
- nowarninglabel 16y agoIf you are subscribed to the kinect-hacks mailing list you would estimate a large number.
- kabdib 16y agoBut not in the millions. I'd be surprised if more than 10,000 sales were to people doing "hacking" of the device. [Not that there's much to "hack" -- all you have to do is open up streams on the thing. It just took someone to replay the initialization and grok the stream format.]
- rbanffy 16y ago> I wonder how many of these were sold to anxious hackers :) ... who don't own Xboxes ;-)
- cubicle67 16y agoby what metric? I assume it's average sales over a period of time, but who decides on the period? 1 week, 1 month, 2 months or 1 year? assuming all these 8 million were sold to consumers (and not just 'in the channel'), then that's a bit over 133k/day which, while still a massive amount, is still less than what the iPhone 4 is selling I'm not trying to downplay these figures, just saying if you're going to award yourself an accolade like that, you need to be able to specify how you measured it
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- vannevar 16y agoI agree, the claim sounds like PR hype. It's a great device but the initial market is primarily XBox owners which is by definition a limited pool. The article suggests XBox sales last year were largely driven by the cheaper XBox slim, not by the $150 Kinect. It'll be interesting to see how it drives 360 sales this year, particularly after the inevitable price drop to $99.
- mjfern 16y agoI saw a demonstration of the Kinect at CES and I was impressed with the technology. The Kinect is a big win for Microsoft. Not only is it a commercial success, but it's also the first Microsoft product in quite some time that has captured the imagination of consumers. Now Microsoft needs to leverage the success of the Kinect to further expand beyond the PC. An obvious direction is to use the Kinect to gain additional market share with the Xbox, since the Kinect is currently designed as a UI for this device. But I think focusing exclusively on the Xbox is a mistake. The Xbox (and other consoles and set-top boxes) may soon get enveloped and displaced by other technologies, particularly connected TVs. I suggest that Microsoft leverage the Kinect as an element in a coherent connected TV strategy. Connected TVs are just emerging, and there is still time to match the developments of Google, Apple, and others in this space. To enter the connected TV market, Microsoft needs to quickly develop a connected TV OS, forge relationships with app developers, and acquire or partner with content providers (e.g., Netflix, OnLive.com). This is all feasible given Microsoft's significant software expertise and its existing relationships (e.g., with Netflix, game developers, etc). Microsoft has been struggling to gain leadership in markets outside the PC. For instance, it's behind in smartphones, tablets, and portable media players. The Kinect could give Microsoft the edge to dominate the emerging connected TV market. The technology strikes me as an excellent UI for the 10-foot viewing experience, especially for interactive media. It can then leverage success in this market to gain further ground in related connected device markets. I think there is a significant opportunity here. Thoughts?
- Qz 16y agoI'm not convinced about 'connected TVs' but I agree that thinking of it as an Xbox peripheral is definitely not the best plan.
- mjfern 16y agoI'm curious. What are your concerns about connected TVs?
- pmjordan 16y agoPersonally, I don't think the TV makers will be smart enough for a while to open their platforms to software developers in a way that is attractive enough for developers to really embrace it. It'll be to the Android Market what the Android Market is to the iOS App Store. Android Market seems to be just about good enough, whereas the App Store is a roaring success. Anything worse than the Android Market is probably going to be a failure. And: Software? Yes, software. It's playing an increasingly large role in all consumer electronics. When I look at the average TV's kafkaesque OSD menus I have very little faith that they won't fuck up something more complicated. Even if Android develops a big screen offshoot, most TV makers will fuck up the implementation, if the majority of Android phones and tablets is anything to go by. The mindset of the hardware makers still is such that the software is an afterthought. It's increasingly becoming the make or break component. The current lot of "smart" TVs certainly reflects that attitude - they can't even get web browsing right on a most basic level. This gives Apple, Boxee, etc. a chance to establish themselves in that market with boxes that are separate from the TV itself. Game consoles are in that category as well, except they're expensive and (still) have a "gamer" stigma associated with them. I understand the Xbox's non-game UI is actually pretty good, so Microsoft could probably release a cheap Xbox without the expensive CPU, GPU and DVD drive, which does everything but play (AAA) games. Extend XBLA to non-game apps. And for god's sake don't call it Xbox, that will transfer the stigma. Btw, Sony will probably miss this opportunity because their TV division is separate from the PlayStation one. And Nintendo, well, no idea. They don't really seem to get the Internet. But they've surprised us before. (they have the Opera browser on the Wii!)
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- iamelgringo 16y agoI just bought one a couple of weeks ago, and I think it's a revolution in computer human interaction. After the first few times you play with the Kinect, you stop thinking "Holy crap, I'm waving my hands, and the computer responds", and you simply start playing the games. On Dance Central, the interface is quite seamless. I'm eagerly looking forward to thinks like fightings games, although I'm going to have to get in much better shape. That is, in fact, my only hesitation that I have with the device: I get tired a lot faster playing games on the device. I've heard rumors that they are going to be releasing an SDK for Win7, and the Win8 is going to have drivers built in. I'll be first in line to buy an extra Kinect per PC if that happens. There's still a ton of room for refinement, and the UI/UX designers are going to have a lot of room to learn, grow and play with a new interface, but as version 1.0 of a new way to interact with a computer, I think it kicks ass.
- bruceboughton 16y agoAs a Kinect owner, the one thing that bugs me about it at the moment is the inconsistency of the menu UX between games. Kinect Adventures has the best menu interactions (you hold your hand out, palm towards the TV, to select menu items and hold to confirm, a.k.a. using the force). Kinect Sports's menu UX is not quite as good and Dance Central is so-so. Sonic Freeriders, however, has one of the most appalling menu systems ever to be invented by mankind, to the extent that it takes minutes to navigate the menu. This, coupled with its poor body tracking, makes the game frustrating and unplayable. Obviously, this is a completely new era of menu design, and it will probably settle down soon to a standard-ish menu design, but I wish the game publishers would resist the temptation to come up with whacky UI metaphors just because they can.
- mortehu 16y ago> palm towards the TV This sort of wording was what lead me to believe the Kinect could actually track hands. I tried three games, and none of them tracked my fingers or the rotation of my hands at all.
- bruceboughton 16y ago
- afterburner 16y agoAnd yet, anecdotally, I know several people who have Xboxes, but none who have the Kinect (including myself).
- gloob 16y agoIn fairness, I know scads of people with fingers, but only one with an iPad.
- scw 16y agoJaron Lanier recently gave a talk at UCSB, and he mentioned that Microsoft is be funding a lab he's setting up in SF to explore new avenues of perception opened up by Kinnect. He mentioned using it to see the world as a lobster, or understand say perhaps a mathematical function by translating body movements to avatar changes.
- brudgers 16y ago>"Microsoft sold 6.3 million XBox 360 consoles during the holiday season" That's within about 10% of the number of iPads Apple moved during the same period. That seems pretty extraordinary for a consumer electronics product that's over five years old. Considering the additional sale of 8 million Kinects during the same period, the combined revenue number would appear to be in the same ballpark as those of the iPad (~$400-$600 per unit times 7 million units).
- Tycho 16y agoIf only the 64DD had been so lucky!
- vaporstun 16y agoWhile the Kinect is very cool technology indeed, it seems a bit deceiving to me when they trumpet a peripheral as the fastest selling electronics device. Were it not for the install base of Xbox 360s, it would not likely have such an rapid adoption rate. Again, it is phenomenal technology, I do not mean to demean it on a technical level, and it is still a great achievement, but it seems a bit sensationalist to me when they laud a peripheral like it is a standalone device when in this case, the high sales volume can be largely attributed to the existing consumer device on which it piggybacks to inflate sales. Just my thoughts though.
- TheBranca18 16y agoMy roommate has it at home, for fitness related games I think it's a godsend, but then again the Wii has already taken that with games like Wii Fit. Being a video game aficionado I'm scared that this is going to replace controller-based games with the advent of Move and the WiiMote as well. I might have to go to the handheld market for less gimmicky gaming depending on what the next gen holds.
- bioh42_2 16y agoI think it is also fair to say the kinect is revolutionizing computer vision. And as someone addicted to Minecraft I have to think that kinect controls forcing you to make swinging full body motions to dig would provide quite a workout.
- thecoffman 16y agoI bought a Kinect release week and to me - its a <Steve Jobs>magical device</Steve Jobs> that's just not quite ready yet - but it has absolutely enormous potential. When I first hooked it up and put in the sports game there's a definite "holy shit" moment when you realize that moving to your left and right and aiming your kicks in the soccer game actually works. You can take two or three steps to the left, around a defender and then kick the ball with the appropriate foot, in the air or on the ground, etc and it works, well. As someone who writes software for a living it was a feeling I haven't had with a hardware/software combo in a long time. On the other hand there are parts of the experience that just aren't there yet. One of parts that seemed to have the most potential was the 10 foot interface - controlling ESPN and your dashboard without ever touching a controller. Unfortunately this just isn't very good. Its finicky and much less efficient than just using a controller. I tried it for a few days before going back to a normal controller or the occasional voice command. To me - this is the part of the experience that needs the most work. I can easily see the Kinect being a revolutionary technology as it evolves and improves - it already is one for games, but its not quite there yet in my opinion.
- phlux 16y agoI am waiting for the Kinect to be helmet-mounted and become night-vision goggles. It can craw a 3d representation of what you see in the night - and can identify human forms, which can be tied to a targeting system. (think robocop, where he enters the warehouse and targets all the thugs really quickly) Given the Israeli company that created the kinnect - and all the autonomous robots it has already been mounted to, this is not far off.