[rsambuca]

If you can believe it, the new Guinness World Record Holder for "The Fastest Selling Consumer Electronics Device" is:

Microsoft Kinect for the XBox360!!!

As some have pointed out it is due to Guiness's kind of arbitrary time frame - they picked the first 60 days of release as their time frame.

Nevertheless, it is still quite the feat for MS, and I never would have guessed Kinect. Apparently they sold 8 million units in the first 60 days. Who would have thunk that MS could pass iPhones and iPads by any measure!

 

[Gord Lacey]

It's interesting that they would consider this an "Electronics Device." It's an accessory; it does absolutely nothing unless it's paired with a 360 (or a computer). Would headphones be considered an electronics device as well?

 

[asif9t9]

I'm surprised it's popular. I could see a few fanboys wanting to test it out, but to sell so much, people must be finding enjoyment.

Btw, how do pre-order sales work for these records? Were the iphone and ipad available for pre-order? And how far in advance were the pre-order sales of Kinect? I see articles from last July talking about Walmart taking Kinect pre-orders. So were sales really 60 days?

 

[Gord Lacey]

iPhone and iPad were available for preorder, except they didn't have an international rollout of either. It was always "US first, everyone else sometime later."

The preorder question is a good one though. It's easy to presell something for months and then ship them all out in a short period of time.

 

[eimaj]

It's interesting that they would consider this an "Electronics Device." It's an accessory; it does absolutely nothing unless it's paired with a 360 (or a computer). Would headphones be considered an electronics device as well?

Agreed. Useless without a 360. I guess the Guinness records standards are not up to the Guinness beer standards!

 

[asif9t9]

According to wikipedia, Ipad 1 pre-orders started March 12, 2010. Sales in US started less than month later on April 3rd. For the iPhone, back in 2007 it looks like there was no pre-order?

And it looks like the Kinect had 3 or 4 months of pre-order time.

This is why I think the numbers for Call of Duty games are inflated. They're compared to movies, but people aren't pre-ordering for months to see a movie. Here's a link to a Black Ops pre-order from last May (game released in November.... 6 months).

 

[Danster]

Problem is Kinect isn't just bought for 360. There are so many cool hacks for it that even I am tempted in buying one. No matter how you cut it, regardless of who buys it for what, Microsoft is the direct winner for all these sales.

 

[hugh]

I agree its a contrived world record, however, selling ten million units is a lot.

I wonder of those, how many are actively being used.

Are there any popular games for it

 

[supergenius]

I can tell you my experience....We bought one for Xmas as kind of a spur of the moment thing, and have most of the games for it (thankfully got them for $15 ea through Microsoft expertzone). The unit was fun on Xmas and New Years with friends, but has since sat unused. I would expect this is a similar story for many others. IMO its a novelty item similar to the PS3 Move (which we also have) and the Wii.

I guess for older people that have trouble with normal controllers, or the very young, it makes it easier to get into gaming, but in my house with 2 preteen boys and 2 30 something adults, there doesn't seem to be any interest in motion controllers.

 

[rsambuca]

It's interesting that they would consider this an "Electronics Device." It's an accessory; it does absolutely nothing unless it's paired with a 360 (or a computer). Would headphones be considered an electronics device as well?

Same could be said for a lot of seemingly stand alone devices. You can't even start with an iPad unless you connect to a PC or Mac with iTunes first. Definitely a hindrence for a linux geek like me.

Anyways, back to topic... Are presales even enough to really make a significant difference? How many people actually fork out money before they can get these types of items?

Anyone know where you might get similar stats for the iPhone and iPod Touch? Frankly I am shocked and a little skeptical that the Kinect could beat those numbers.

 

[Dr.Dave]

Anyone know where you might get similar stats for the iPhone and iPod Touch? Frankly I am shocked and a little skeptical that the Kinect could beat those numbers.

According to Wikipedia it took Apple 5 quarters to sell 6.1 million iPhones. Between September 2007 and September 2009 they sold over 45 million iPod Touch.

 

[GusX]

I wonder of those, how many are actively being used.

Probably as many as the Wii

I was thinking of getting the Kinect but then saw the dust on my Wii and our Wii Fit that has been used all but 4 times (wife said it would be cool to get). I figured the Kinect might suffer the same fate in our household.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Same could be said for a lot of seemingly stand alone devices. You can't even start with an iPad unless you connect to a PC or Mac with iTunes first.

There's absolutely no way you could classify an iPad as an accessory. Yes, an iPad needs to be connected to a computer once, but a Kinect doesn't work at all if it's not plugged into something.

 

[rsambuca]

I agree with you. But I also can't get an iPad unless I get Windows first, so that I can install iTunes.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I'm sure someone at the Apple store would be more than happy to plug the iPad into a computer so you could start using it.

 

[Steve604]

I use my Kinect often but never long, 1 or 2 games tops
mostly if I'm having a few bad rounds of duty, to take a break