Microsoft got Kinect technology since "Apple is a pain in the ***"

Emil

Posts: 152   +0

Back in June 2008, PrimeSense was looking to sell the technology that would eventually be engineered into what we now know as Xbox Kinect. The first company in Silicon Valley that PrimeSense CEO, Inon Beracha tried to demonstrate the sensor that powers Kinect to was none other than Apple.

The technology had been developed by engineers in the Israeli military. When asked about why he thought of Apple first, Beracha told Cult of Mac that "It was the most natural place for the technology." The negotiations didn't go so well. Beracha figured the technology was so good that he would be able to sell it to anyone. In the end, it came down to "Apple is a pain in the ass," Beracha reportedly said with a smile on his face.

Unfortunately for Apple, Beracha wasn't happy with the way negotiations for the motion control technology were being handled. Cupertino insisted on being controlling: meetings were limited by the company's insistence on secrecy, not to mention contractual demands, legal agreements, and NDAs. Beracha went looking at other companies, and Microsoft ended up playing its cards right.

The decision to go with Apple makes more sense in 2010 than it did two years ago. We now know how much Apple CEO Steve Jobs hates buttons, how he wants as few of them on his devices as possible, and how much the company is pushing multi-touch. It doesn't get any more "button-less" in computing, however, than a full body interface like the Xbox Kinect.

Microsoft chose to go with the Xbox as a start for the technology but one must remember that, over a year ago Bill Gates said that he would like to see Kinect on Windows one day. He listed a few possible areas of implementation: media consumption, interacting during meetings, collaboration, and communication.

Apple doesn't sell a gaming console so that industry would not have been a likely candidate for the technology. Had the negotiations gone differently, would we have seen it in Macs, the iPad, or maybe the Apple TV instead?

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This is another win for Microsoft, which they seem to be wracking up lately.
Go team!
 
Very interesting. I did not know Kinect wasn't developed by Microsoft.
I wonder what other cool technologies Apple lost by scaring the hell out of inventors...
 
hmmmmmm, instead of multi touch, maybe we could've multi sensor...... ?
 
Oh, and MS, unlike Apple, actually sells a very popular game console...

I wonder if they'll eventually make Sims controllable by the Kinect? Cause then we will be able to physically able to act out the mundane aspects of our lives with our virtual selves and we'll have a species wide existentialist crisis.
 
hello ...

for sure kinnect is coming to PC :p ...

Too bad, i think Apple could have made good use of it, yet this isn't a totally exclusive product, anyone can & will someday use 'webcams' as remote controls ...why not after all.

cheers!
 
Kinect for Windows... sounds like a good idea. although it will take years to mature. combined with something like DragonNaturallySpeaking as the voice recognition. then what? remember Jarvis from Iron Man? lol
 
Now that I know this, this makes me want the Kinect to succeed, so that it somehow proves that Apple made a bad decision by not going with the technology (that is because I don't like Apple). But sadly, Kinect is going to fail, which will indirectly and subliminally demonstrate that Apple made the right decision by not going with it.
 
The Kinect looks interesting, but I would really like to see where it goes first. I bought a Wii early on, and while I like some games on it, it basically sits and collects dust.
 
I used to own an XBOX 360 but after 3 RROD i kinda got fed up but i do still like the xbox just dont want to shell out the money for one plus a new kinect. I have to laugh though at Apple another blunder in there department apple seems to be on a bad streak with products lets see how this keeps going.
 
kinetics is somehow rasistic system. it has problems with detecting dark-skin people. something simmilar as was on the HP laptops some time ago.
 
Another example of Apple's stringent controls ruining a potential business opportunity. I bet Microsoft is loving this press!
 
I know Steve job's company puts out some really nice tech now and again, but i am confused that they develop any working relationships with other bussinesses with this kind of behavior.
 
Since apple does not sell a gaming console, what's the point of this technology to non gamers? While it might've been cute to scroll through a website by flicking your fingers through the air, you really going to pay 200 extra dollars for that technology? Especially when for document reading right in front of your lap, it makes much more sense just to flicke your finger on pad in front of you? MS spent hundreds of millions and is hoping to sell 3 million of the by this quarter ... Apple meanwhile makes $600 per iPhone sold and basically sells about 3 million phones every two weeks ... This is cute technology for ms to catch up to the wii but that's all it is - cute technology ... Of cfourse these guys wanted apple onboard as "important" technology so it's with some sour grapes they have to settle being on the xbox.
 
Apple never had the intention to buy it. They just wanted to see what it was and how it worked. And apparently Apple wasn't impressed.
 
I think I'm noticing a trend right now. Before Microsoft seemed to be the bad guy and Mac the good guy. Now Mac seems more like the bad guy and Microsoft the good guy. Maybe they're both the bad guy. XD
 
mpribe said:
Another example of Apple's stringent controls ruining a potential business opportunity. I bet Microsoft is loving this press!

Apple is a monopolistic company that seeks complete control over every aspect of its devices; just look at the heavily restricted IPhone and OS X variants.

It's good that Apple did not purchase this technology. If it had purchased it, apple fanatics would have been boasting about their computers' useless motion control capabilities.
 
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