Why I think the Kinect is a game changer much like the iPhone

The iPhone revolutionized what we do and how we do it.  It became my one device for connecting to people, managing my finances, looking at the weather, filming, occupying my children on a long flight, and the list goes on and on.  In fact unless there is an app, I won’t use that SW.

For the price of an iPhone, the Kinect allows us control what other object do.  Even cooler are all the hacks that people can come up with in the privacy of their own home, and then share with us.  One read your email, another translated American Sign Language (ASL) and a favorite for all couch potatoes: move a lazyboy.

For me its controlling netflix.  That is huge.  Growing up we always had a flight to the death over the remote, because that person got to determine what other people watched.  Now the stakes are even higher, we went through 3 peanut remotes in the past four years (kids use them as projectiles, dogs confuse them for chew toys…well you get the idea.)  Also remotes have gotten so complicated that my mother, or my mother-in-law request I turn on the TV for them.  These are smart, educated women (engineering degree, patent holder.)  Now a wave of your hand or foot can get you to your favorite show.

Like the IPhone, the Kinect is relatively inexpensive, commercially available, has low barriers for development, and a developer community that loves to share hacks.