Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 is selling faster in the first month of its release than both the Sony Move controller and the Apple iPad.
Microsoft’s Kinect has sold over 2.5 million units in less than a month, Microsoft said in a press release Monday. That’s more than twice as fast as the Kinect’s rival gaming controller, the Sony Move, which sold just 1 million sales in its first month. It’s also twice as fast as the initial sales of Apple’s iPad, which sold 2 million units in the first two months.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we can go so far as to predict that the Kinect will be the fastest-selling electronic device ever–or even the most anticipated gift under the tree this year. After all, Microsoft’s first month sales were boosted by Black Friday sales–neither Sony nor Apple managed to release their products right before the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
Microsoft acknowledges this in its press release, pointing out that the Kinect was a “top performer at Target this weekend.” That doesn’t stop them from forecasting that 5 million Kinect units will be sold this holiday season. The real question, of course, is whether or not Microsoft can keep up this 2.5 million/month pace once the holidays die down–the iPad, after all, is its own class of consumer product, and has kept up a pace of 4.5 million units per quarter.
The Microsoft Kinect sensor is not necessarily a device in itself, but an addition to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console. The Kinect is a sensor bar that lets players use their bodies (and voices) as gaming controllers–unlike Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Move, Kinect requires no additional handheld controllers or devices in order to track player’s movements.
So, while it’s a bit to early to tell if Microsoft’s Kinect is going to break records the way the iPad has (and, okay, a bit of a stretch to say that it’s really selling better than the iPad or the Move, when it got to cheat with Black Friday sales), the Kinect is still likely to be a hot gift this season.
At least, it better be, because as far as I’m aware, all the kiddies want iPads this season. Parents, listen up: would you rather buy your 10-year-old a fragile, $500+ tablet (which, if it’s not broken, will end up collecting dust in a couple of months), or a $150 addition to a gaming console they already have (and already love)? Yeah, that’s what I thought.