Ballmer hints at Microsoft Kinect for PC

Steve Ballmer drops strong hint that official Kinect support for PC on the way soon
Steve Ballmer drops strong hint that official Kinect support for PC on the way soon

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has dropped heavy hints this week that Windows PCs will be getting Kinect support at some point in the future.

In some slightly disingenuous PR doublespeak, Ballmer told a BBC interviewer this week, when asked directly about plans to bring Kinect to PC, that Microsoft:

"Will support that in a formal way in the right time… and when we have an announcement to make then we'll make it."

Gaming was just the start

Right now, the Microsoft boss stressed how the company was focusing on socialisation using Xbox and Kinect, opening the experience up to non-gamers by promoting movies, music and more.

"We certainly started out with Xbox, very focused on gaming," Ballmer told the BBC.

"We're trying to do two major things. We're trying to move beyond gaming and include the world of socialization, TV, movies, music. And we're trying to make the whole experience accessible to everybody in the family, not just the traditional gamer."

App-unhappy chappy

In addition to not-quite-but-almost-confirming that Kinect support for PC would be formally announced soon, Ballmer also took the opportunity to take a side-swipe at Apple.

When discussing the growing importance of apps in recent years, Ballmer was quick to remind the interviewer that "Apple's business is Apple's business" adding that the largest app eco-system in the world still belongs to the PC, followed by the web.

"In particular, as the web moves to HTML 5, which we are doing, I think, beautifully in our Internet Explorer 9," Ballmer added.

Via BBC

Adam Hartley