Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) Saved by Kinect?

Behind Kinect, the computer game device that recognizes gestures and voice commands, lies a far larger agenda for Microsoft.

The Kinect technology, according to Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, is the beginning of a new way of communicating with computers. For the past quarter of a century, computing has mainly meant typing on a keyboard and using a computer mouse to point and click on graphic icons on the screen — the graphical user interface, or GUI (“gooey”).

Kinect, a $150 add-on to the Xbox game console, points the way to a different model, a natural user interface, or NUI, said Mr. Mundie. Increasingly, he insists, the computers that surround us will understand our speech and hand gestures. The machines, in essence, will become a bit more human.

Kinect, Mr. Mundie said, was “the first incarnation of the next big thing in computing.”

One more thing, while the vast majority are looking down at the deal by Microsoft with Nokia (NYSE:NOK), the truth is it could be an extraordinary play by both companies, and as for the smartphone wars, they're aren't near to maturing, and have only just begun.

With the extraordinary potential of Kinect and smartphones, Microsoft may have found the growth solution for the company for the next decade, or maybe even more, depending on how the products evolve.





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