How Apple Almost Got Microsoft's Kinect Game Controller
In June 2008, on a flight home from Europe to San Francisco, I was given a fascinating demo of some jaw-dropping technology. — I was sitting next Inon Beracha, CEO of Israeli company PrimeSense, which had developed a low-cost chip and software to do 3D machine vision.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a first-hand origin story for the sensor inside Microsoft's Kinect: Cult of Mac recounts a June 2008 in-flight demo by PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha of his company's low-cost chip-plus-software stack for 3D machine vision — the same technology the company went on to supply for Kinect after talks with Apple fell apart.
The significance at this moment is competitive, not historical: the confirmed record is that Apple had a near-deal for the technology and lost it, leaving Microsoft as the platform owner holding PrimeSense's depth-sensing hardware just as gesture control becomes a headline feature. With no prior arc in our coverage, the piece stands alone as an account of how close Apple came to owning that supplier relationship.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's Kinect controller is built on PrimeSense's 3D machine-vision chip and software, giving Microsoft's gaming platform a depth-sensing capability its closest rival declined to buy when it had the chance.
Second-order effects
- Apple, having walked away from the PrimeSense negotiation, enters whatever motion- or vision-based interface work it pursues without that supplier, forcing it toward alternative vendors or in-house sensing development.
Third-order effects
- If low-cost 3D vision proves out in mass-market gaming hardware, perception silicon becomes a standard input layer across consumer devices, and control of perception IP becomes a sourcing battleground among platform owners rather than a component purchase.
The trend: Consumer 3D machine vision is graduating from small Israeli chip startups to flagship gaming hardware, and platform owners are beginning to treat perception technology as strategic IP worth fighting over.