Microsoft 'Kinects' with big sales: 2.5M in a month

By David Goldman, staff writer


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft said it has sold more than 2.5 million Kinect devices for the Xbox 360 in its first month on sale.

Kinect was one of the hottest-selling items at Target (TGT, Fortune 500) on Black Friday, according to the retailer.

The $150 device allows Xbox users to play video games without a controller. Microsoft hoped it would help attract more casual gamers to its video game platform. Sony (SNE) also unveiled the Move for PlayStation for the holiday season, but like the Nintendo Wii, it requires a controller for game play.

Although it's not a true apples-to-apples comparison (so to speak), Microsoft can take pride in the fact that it sold more Kinects in its first month than Apple did with its ballyhooed tablet computer, the iPad.

Apple sold 1 million iPads in its first month of sale. Of course, the video game device's price is much lower -- the cheapest iPad costs $479 -- and the Kinect was available in more countries than the iPad at the time of its launch.

"We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand," said Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, in a statement.

Based on the sales so far, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) predicted that it would sell 5 million Kinects during the holiday season. To top of page

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