Kinect for Windows coming February 1st

During Microsoft’s CES keynote tonight Microsoft announced that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and software will be available February 1st. The Kinect will be be priced at $249 in the US and will come with ongoing software updates for speech and human tracking (sounds creepy). The Windows version has a “near mode” which works at a closer range than the current connect. One interesting thing mentioned in the MSDN blog post is that Kinect for Windows is supported on Windows Embedded based devices with gesture and voice recognition.

I am looking forward to see what developers come up with, read more on the MSDN blog

Starting February 1, 2012: Use the Power of Kinect for Windows to Change the World

Today, we are announcing that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1^st, 2012 in 12 countries (United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom), at a suggested retail price of US $249.  Kinect for Windows hardware will be available, in limited quantities at first, through a variety of resellers and distributors.  The price includes a one-year warranty, access to ongoing software updates for both speech and human tracking, and our continued investment in Kinect for Windows-based software advancements.  Later this year, we will offer special academic pricing (planned at US $149) for Qualified Educational Users.

We love the innovation we have seen built using Kinect for Xbox 360 – this has been a source of inspiration and delight for us and compelled us to create a team dedicated to serving this opportunity.   We are proud to bring technology priced in the tens of thousands of dollars just a few years ago to the mainstream at extremely low consumer prices. And although Kinect for Windows is still value-priced for the technology, some will ask us why it isn’t the same price as Kinect for Xbox.

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With Kinect for Windows, we are investing in creating a platform that is optimized for scenarios beyond the living room, and delivering new software features on an ongoing basis, starting with “near mode” (see my earlier blog post for more about this).  In addition to support for Windows 7 and the Windows 8 developer preview (desktop apps only), Kinect for Windows will also support gesture and voice on Windows Embedded-based devices and will enhance how data is captured and accessed within intelligent systems across manufacturing, retail  and many more industries. We are building the Kinect for Windows platform in a way that will allow other companies to integrate Kinect into their offerings and we have invested in an approach that allows them to develop in ways that are dependable and scalable.