Consumer Electronics Show 2011 has kicked off in Las Vegas with Steve Ballmer delivering the launching keynote. And since Mr Ballmer was representing the Redmondians, it was only natural to see the CEO talk about Kinect, the motion sensing controller for Xbox 360 and hint at its success and popularity by giving some interesting sales figures.

Kinect Cat

Ballmer, in his keynote which included information about Windows Phone 7 as well, revealed that the tech giants sold 8 million units of the trend setting Kinect. While the figure alone is bound to get you excited, it is worth mentioning that this count refers to the number of units Microsoft shipped to channels and not the consumers.

Still, Kinect stands tall and proud as it is world’s fastest selling gadget and moreover it managed to go above Microsoft’s estimated goal of selling 5 M units in the year 2010.

Unfortunately, Microsoft did not provide details about an upcoming Kinect firmware update that will take the controller’s sensor capabilities to the next level and will let it track hand gestures and finger movements.

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