In his keynote speech on Wednesday at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled some pretty remarkable numbers for the Xbox 360 and Kinect. The full transcript and video of the speech is now available, just in case you missed it. Also, catch all the Microsoft CES news on our CES Newsroom.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Kinect’s impressive start since its early November launch, as well as some bits and pieces on the console itself and Xbox LIVE:
• 8 million Kinects sold in the motion-sensor game device’s first 60 days of availability, easily outdistancing the 5 million Kinects Microsoft expected to sell during that time frame.
• Over the holiday season, console sales for the Xbox 360 hit 50 million. It also was the No. 1-selling console in North America over the past six months.
• Xbox LIVE now has more than 30 million active members.
Get the full story about the Xbox 360 and Kinect on the Microsoft News Center.
During Ballmer’s keynote, Microsoft’s Mike Angiulo from Windows engineering also showed off the Samsung SUR40, which uses Surface 2.0 – Microsoft’s next-generation natural user interface (NUI) technology.
Check out the press release regarding the SUR40 and Surface 2.0 for photos, video and more details on the device’s capabilities and customer adoption news, which includes several marquee companies including the Royal Bank of Canada and energy drink producer Red Bull.
Also making headlines at CES 2011 was the new Touch Mouse – available in June 2011 – from Microsoft Hardware. The new mouse adds multi-touch gestures to Windows 7 in addition to traditional point-and-click functionality. Read more about the Touch Mouse on this Windows Experience Blog post, which also features a two-minute video demo. That’s the Touch Mouse below.
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Senior Manager, Corporate Blogs
