Microsoft claims its Kinect motion controller will help itcompete against Apple's mature ecosystem.
Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference, Microsoft's head of devices, Julie Larson-Green, was asked how the company would counteract Apple's "huge, entrenched ecosystem".
Larson-Green replied that "hardware innovation" would be the key for Microsoft, hinting at future developments with Kinect's voice-recognition system. "There will be another inflection point and it's going to come from the hardware input model," she said.
"So that's why you've seen us doing things with Kinect, with gesture. You see us doing things with voice. There's one coming. And all the things have to come together."
Microsoft released the Windows SDK for Kinect in February 2012, but despite many interesting research projects, we've yet to see a PC ship with a Kinect sensor. In the meantime, rivals such as Leap Motion have released gesture controllers for Windows PCs, albeit with limited success.
Recent acquisitions suggest Apple is, at the very least, wary of the potential threat from Kinect-like controllers. The company this weekend confirmed it had bought 3D sensor firm, PrimeSense, whose technology was used inside early models of the Kinect. Microsoft now develops its own sensor technology.
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