Microsoft has announced today that strong Thanksgiving week demand has led to strong sales of the Kinect motion control system.
The software giant says sales have now hit 2.5 million worldwide since launch on November 4th.
Adds Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft:
“We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand. With sales already exceeding two and a half million units in just 25 days, we are on pace to reach our forecast of 5 million units sold to consumers this holiday.”
Kinect is available in 38 countries.
Result for: shelves
The world’s highest grossing movie of all-time, the blockbuster Avatar has now also become the fastest-selling Blu-ray disc of all-time, selling 2.7 million units in just four days.
The previous record holder was the blockbuster The Dark Knight, which has sold 2.5 million discs in 18 months.
Avatar, on DVD and Blu-ray has already sold upwards of 7 million units, putting it on pace to become the best-selling title of the decade.
20th Century Fox, the distributor behind the film says cumulative first day sales were 3.2 million, with 2 million coming from DVD sales and the rest from Blu-ray. In recent memory, the Dark Knight launched with 2.7 million units (2.1 million on DVD) and Twilight: New Moon saw 4 million units sold in its first two days. Avatar’s two-day number was around 5.5 million.
Says James Finn of Fox, via Deadline: “Grocery and drug stores sold more Avatar [2D] in one day than they sold of The Dark Knight during its entire life on shelves. This shows that the audience for the home entertainment release far out weighs the fan boy base. It’s a cultural phenomenon…again. Employees and customers alike are dressing up as Na’vis in stores around the country, and this is a home entertainment release like no other.”
“My sources are telling me that Best Buy has sold twice as many Blu-ray players as they normally do since the biggest movie of all time landed in stores. Mass merchants are estimating that Avatar Blu-ray sales are north of 50%, a remarkable percentage for the format and for the home entertainment category. I’ll have more of a read tomorrow morning, but Avatar [2D] is on track to do for Blu-ray what it did for 3D in theaters.”
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Result for: shelves
Engadget is reporting today that the top selling e-reader, the Amazon Kindle, may be reaching Target retail shelves as soon as April 25th, marking the first time the device will be available outside of Amazon.
The move would make sense given the new launch of the Apple iPad, which is available in brick-and-mortar Apple and Best Buy locations and had extremely strong sales opening weekend. Additionally, the popular Nook is available in Barnes & Nobles retail stores.
Amazon and Target have been partners for almost a decade, with Amazon running Target’s e-commerce website.
So far, both Amazon and Target have said they “do not comment on rumor or speculation.”
