Kinect - the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever

[belvdr]

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsofts-Xbox-Kinect-sells-10-million-breaks-record/1299701317

Microsoft sold 8 million Kinect controllers in its first 60 days and now it's over 10 million.

Guinness World Records has dubbed the device the "fastest selling consumer electronics device ever," with an average daily sell-through of 133,333 units per day from the period of November 4, 2010 through January 3, 2011. Those rates are far above that of either the iPod or the iPad, which Apple has been keen to boast as the 'fastest ever' in the past.

I love my Kinect.

 

[secondhandloser]

props to microsoft for getting the marketing side right on it.

 

[alm99]

I wish they would put out some more games....getting tired of kinect adventures, kinect sports. Everything else besides the dancing game has been *meh*

 

[Tharian]

Hmm. I wonder if that is 10 million sales to customers, or in the sales channel (like Target, BB, etc). If it is to customers, then that's really impressive. If not, then not so much.

-d

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-gb; Nexus S Build/GRI40) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Congrats to Microsoft but motion gaming ain't my thing.

 

[Tharian]

Perhaps Microsoft sees their xbox division as more important than their mobile division right now.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/27/microsoft-announces-q2-earnings-8-17b-profit-xbox-revenue-up/

-d

 

[LethalWolfe]

Hmm. I wonder if that is 10 million sales to customers, or in the sales channel (like Target, BB, etc). If it is to customers, then that's really impressive. If not, then not so much.

-d

The article mentions "sell-through" which typically means the number of units that end up in the hand of a customer.

Lethal

 

[Melrose]

Hmm. I wonder if that is 10 million sales to customers, or in the sales channel (like Target, BB, etc). If it is to customers, then that's really impressive. If not, then not so much.

-d

I wondered too..

If dem numbers are paying customers, kudos, Redmond.

 

[revelated]

Perhaps Microsoft sees their xbox division as more important than their mobile division right now.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/27/microsoft-announces-q2-earnings-8-17b-profit-xbox-revenue-up/

-d

Xbox has been their cash cow for years, mostly because of Xbox Live. Microsoft was really the first to get online gaming right AND still manage to charge for it.

 

[Tharian]

The article mentions "sell-through" which typically means the number of units that end up in the hand of a customer.

Lethal

Bingo. My hat's off to them, then. They have a well-earned success.
Though I prefer my ps3.

-d

 

[roadbloc]

I think Microsoft should be applauded for this, it's probably going to eventually 'revolutrionise' gaming. I do preffer a controller for now though.

 

[Alaerian]

The only motion activated controller that ever needed to be made was this:

 

[notjustjay]

I think Kinect users look positively ridiculous (and perhaps that's part of the fun) but if people are enjoying it, then hey, congrats to Microsoft.

 

[dmr727]

The only motion activated controller that ever needed to be made was this:

Bah! All the cool kids had the Power Glove:

 

[SevenInchScrew]

I think Kinect users look positively ridiculous (and perhaps that's part of the fun)

That's a big part of it. Dance Central with friends is hilarious fun.

Bah! All the cool kids had the Power Glove:

It's so bad!

 

[RITZFit]

Can't forget that epic "Duck Hunt" Gun

 

[Alaerian]

Can't forget that epic "Duck Hunt" Gun

Only allowable if it's the grey one, not the orange one.

This:

Not this:

 

[belvdr]

Can't forget that epic "Duck Hunt" Gun

Hey, it's the Nintendo Zapper! It's not just a gun.

 

[Charlie Sheen]

Right after the ipad

 

[Melrose]

Right after the ipad

^ Username. Seriously dude?

 

[belvdr]

Right after the ipad

If you're referring to the original iPad, Kinect outsold it. For iPad 2, it's not the leader. This news is current and active. It's not a hopeful thought.

 

[Alaerian]

If you're referring to the original iPad, Kinect outsold it. For iPad 2, it's not the leader. This news is current and active. It's not a hopeful thought.

It may be current news, but still ... who cares?

That mindset reeks of a five year old - "nyah nyah nyah"

 

[belvdr]

It may be current news, but still ... who cares?

That mindset reeks of a five year old - "nyah nyah nyah"

Many people care and it's all over the Internet. I hardly think this is a mindset of a 5 year old. According to your logic, almost the entire tech industry, including Apple, have a mindset of a 5 year old, especially how they place banners on their site boasting over the number of sales on the iTunes store.

It takes something very unique in the tech industry to sell that many units over a short period of time. It's no small feat.

 

[SevenInchScrew]

It may be current news, but still ... who cares?

That mindset reeks of a five year old - "nyah nyah nyah"

As with any sales related press release, there is, of course, a little bragging involved. But with a situation like this, the reason for publicizing it has a multitude of benefits.

Video game peripherals have typically been a very hit or miss thing. More often than not a miss. The reason for this is because game developers can't assume that someone has the peripheral, so often times the device gets very little support. What MS is doing by touting the great sales of Kinect is playing both sides of the "Chicken-or-Egg" debate.

Developers get the benefit of now knowing that there are 8M+ pieces of the hardware out there, so the userbase is quite large, and your game has plenty of people to market to. And the Kinect owners get reassured that the device they just bought isn't a sales flop, and should have a pretty decent library given some time.

That is by no means a given, obviously. History is not on the side of MS here. Almost all non-bundled peripherals are sales failures, and thus never get a good library of games. But, 8M+ of these is a great start, so it has the best shot at being successful of any peripheral before it. Should be interesting to see how this pans out in a couple years.

 

[LethalWolfe]

It may be current news, but still ... who cares?

That mindset reeks of a five year old - "nyah nyah nyah"

I'm assuming you make this same remark every time Apple reports sales numbers, right?


Lethal