The player

Microsoft isn't feeling smug over the success of Kinect, writes CIARA O'BRIEN

MICROSOFT MUST be feeling pretty satisfied. Not only has it shifted 18 million Kinect sensors since it launched over a year ago, but it seems that everyone wants to emulate the technology.

At this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the emphasis was definitely on gesture control for electronics, with TV manufacturers such as Samsung and LG promising that some sort of gesture control would be brought in to smart TVs in the future. And it all looked rather familiar.

Microsoft isn’t taking anything for granted. “We’ve always believed that having options is great,” said the company’s David Dennis. “We just felt [Kinect] was a natural evolution. The fact others are following is a good endorsement, but I think the fact we’ve got such a headstart is a great position to be in.”

Dennis pointed to the evolution of Kinect; it now has integrated voice search that can understand complex commands. And he noted that, overall, Xbox 360 has sold 66 million units worldwide, meaning Kinect’s install base is roughly a quarter of total consoles.

“It’s a great number and we’re happy with it,” he said. “You see a bit of a snowball effect with third parties. This holiday we had four more times the number of games than we did at launch.”

Microsoft has long been one of the exhibition’s biggest participants, delivering a keynote speech regularly. But from 2013, the company said it will not be playing as big a role. This is being blamed on the timing of the show, with January not exactly suiting Microsoft’s timetable for product launches.

And there’s a lot more competition these days, and Microsoft has its fingers in a lot of pies. In a few weeks, Mobile World Congress will kick off, and E3 will follow in June. That covers a lot of the mobile phone announcements and games from the company.

There were high hopes that Microsoft would unveil a new console at the show, but given E3 (where it officially announced Kinect in 2010) is still six months away, it was always an outside chance. What Microsoft did say was that its Kinect for Windows programme would launch in February. The programme is aimed at business users rather than the average computer user hooking up the Kinect to control Windows or browse the internet via gesture control.

Microsoft also teased us with another look at Star Warsfor Kinect — but fans still have a wait for that one.