Kinect For Windows Releasing On February 1

clinko writes "Microsoft has announced that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1st, 2012 in 12 countries, at a suggested retail price of US $249 ($149 for edu). Microsoft has chosen a hardware-only business model for Kinect for Windows; they will not be charging for the SDK or the runtime. These will be available free to developers and end-users respectively."

Re:Now how does this change the hardware?

[Kwirl]

Or you could, you know, read the article. The directly address why the windows version costs $100 more than the Xbox version, and after reading the entire article, I think it is both justified and reasonable. While I have little expectation that you are going to read this reply, given that I use words, like the article, I am going to summarize the important parts with regards to your statement.

The Kinect for Xbox was subsidized by Live subscriptions and game sales, with the PC version they are going to focus on the hardware and allow people to innovate with their hardware for free. Instead of paying for licenses to develop or for support, etc - you pay the entire cost at purchase, and you will get support for the product without expense.

While you can complain and gripe about the extra hundred dollars, I would implore you to maybe stop and think about what you are getting for the price. Why don't we ask around and see how much other companies are charging for a single device that includes video and audio functionality as well as speech to text translation and motion capture. At $250 this device is a steal. Yeah, times are tough, money isn't raining from the skies, but with all the iMorons blowing through apple products like a new york heroin addict in the hills of Afghanistan, well, skip an update on your phone one month.

I believe that the Kinect is going to do more to revolutionize computer interaction, gaming and functionality more than any invention since the second button on a mouse. They could price this at 500 dollars and I'd put down money that every retailer would blow through their inventory. At 250 dollars, not only will they put one on every computer inside of 2 and a half years, but they are laying down a foundation for young engineers, scientists, hackers and hobbyists to create a community with vast potential.

While this site often condemns the 'greed' of corporations such as MS, Sony, Google, etc - I think this is a case where I feel proud to have put my money towards innovation.

Re:Why So expensive?

[wvmarle]

Sensible.

But: OP says he can get xbox+Kinect at $199, or even as low as $99.

Summary states just Kinect $249.

So even if you're just after the kinekt it's cheaper to buy the combo, and you can put the xbox itself on ebay afterwards.

Unless the hardware is radically different (the software to use it would be available for free) and presumably better it just doesn't make sense.

Re:Expensive much?

[Anonymous Coward]

-edit- surely enough, such subsidized sales are illegal in a lot of countries, including holland. But in practice it's seen all over, like inkjet printers etc. and everyone seems to accept this kind of trading.

Interesting, but useless

[KazW]

The Kinect has a user base of 18 million units world wide, let's assume only half of those are USB units, that's 9 million units. Instead of Microsoft allowing home users to use their XBox Kinect with Windows Metro apps, home users will be forced to buy a new Kinect to use it with Windows apps (commercial apps anyways, they can use apps made with the beta SDK).

With this move Microsoft has reduced the PC user base of Kinect to 0, eliminating a huge audience for developers. The reason given was that the XBox Kinect was subsidized by game sales, but if using that defence, why not just subsidize this Kinect through the new app store Windows 8 will have? This would let home users use their existing Kinect and keep Microsoft's bottom line doing well in the long term. This is just a very dumb move overall.

Foreword to pro-M$ trolls, I did RTFA and I know about the "near" feature of this new Kinect, but it still doesn't justify this move.

Re:Why So expensive?

[Zocalo]

No, that still makes sense. Microsoft would still get some revenue back from the games sold for the subsidised Xbox from the combo that was sold on eBay without the Kinnect, so still (presumably) ends up with a net profit.

Re:For what purpose?

[L4t3r4lu5]

Realtime true 3D video (moving PoV to any point in space) is the absolute best use I've seen for Kinect. For those who've not seen it, clicky [youtube.com]

Screw Stereographic effects; I want to pan and see that Na'vi's ass! *Ahem*

Re:Kinect - Gathering In Junk Closets Everwhere

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. I think you are talking about the PS3, not 360. Lets see:

Piece of junk webcam....check
Last place console...check
Bad tech...check
Gamers trashing it ....I forget, which was is laughed and compared to looking like a sex toy...oh yeah....check

Yep, I think it's clear you got your 360 and PS3 mixed up.

It's amazing that you can even begin to think the move is better tech than a kinect. The kinect isn't just a camera. It projects and IR grid into the room, and then uses stereo cameras to detect the projection depth of the grid. With this it can actually build an accurate depth map of the room and identify complete 3 dimensional object. It can then use this to accurately reconstruct skeletal structure of players.

Compare this to the Move. I actually find that hardware hillarious. They basically took system hardware that was many times more powerful than the Wii, had the advantage of learning from the Wii's mistakes, and had several years of R&D advantage over the Wii. And what did they come up with? A system that's barely more capable than the Wii, with contollers that look stupid. Compared to Move, the Kinect hardware is brilliant and elegant.

Re:Why So expensive?

[tlhIngan]

Is this better hardware, perhaps with higher resolution? Or is there some hurdle put in the hardware and API for windows-kinect to prohibit us from using the cheaper xbox one with future windows kinect games?

Both.

The retail SDK will not support Xbox kinect, while the beta SDK will.

Second, the PC version features a "near mode" that allows for PC use without needing the living room space. So instead of hving to interact with Kinect from 6-10' away, you can be as close as a couple of feet (it degrades gently though, so the absolute minimum is just under a foot and a third).

Finally, the Xbox Kinect runs the IR camera at QVGA resolution. This is because the Xbox's USB 2 host is not fast enough (theoretical performance is 30MB/sec, and they're only getting about half that). So the sensor resolution is compromised because the USB bus is too slow on the Xbox. (They're supposed to be working hard to fix it and to get closer to the theoretical max).

PCs don't have this issue, except for cheaper lower end ones. This means Windows Kinect can run both cameras at VGA resolution enabling far better depth mapping. Heck, it may be possible to adjust based on PC performance (some PCs have crappy USB ports that cause USB errors and USB downshifts to 1.1 because of it). This would be interesting as Kinect may be one of the first USB peripherals with high isochronous bandwidth demands that most PCs would rarely encounter.