Microsoft Corp (MSFT)

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Microsoft shifts a million Kinect units
Gamers gesture towards their wallets

DANCING GAMERS apparently have taken to Microsoft's Kinect as the firm has announced that it has managed to shift a million devices in just 10 days.

The impressive sales figures come despite Microsoft releasing Kinect in the US six days earlier than in Europe, on 4 November, with the device yet to go on sale in Asia. It has led to Microsoft doing something it hasn't done in some time, revising its sales predictions upwards to five million by the end of 2010.

Microsoft has every right to be bullish over the Kinect. The motion sensing controller represents a rare technological innovation. By Christmas, Microsoft hopes to have the device on sale in 38 countries and a library of 17 Kinect enabled games available.

Another success-story for Microsoft has been its Xbox Live service, with the firm claiming that 25 million members have clocked up more than a billion hours of game time on the service.

Microsoft is likely to hit its lofty sales prediction for the Kinect thanks to the busy Christmas buying season and Black Friday, traditionally the biggest sales day of the year in the US.