On: Microsoft now says it’s “inspired’ by community finding new uses for Kinect

[marcusbooster]

I'm sure they are "inspired" by the interest in this device. I'd never buy an Xbox, but I'd get one of these just to hook it up to my computer and play around. Why would they not want to take my money?

[lanstein → marcusbooster]

Because they're probably losing money on the hardware.

[mikaelgramont → lanstein]

Very unlikely in the long term. As millions of these get built, cost will come down.

[jrockway → lanstein]

How much do they lose if it just sits on the shelf?

[mechanical_fish → jrockway]

The premise of this question is likely wrong, but in an enlightening way: The Kinect looks poised to be a big hit this holiday season, which is to say "over the next thirty days". There may well not be enough inventory to meet demand, and every Kinect that is bought by a hacker is a Kinect that doesn't also serve to drive the sale of XBox hardware and XBox games during the peak game-buying season of the year.

[barake → mechanical_fish]

They moved 1 million units in the first 10 days. Apparently on track for 5 million before year's end.