Using its proprietary research from the Vantis Files, market research company Ipsos today said that Microsoft's Kinect camera is poised to be the "big winner" among tech products this holiday shopping season. The research tested consumer responses to Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move and found that Kinect has the advantage.
"Results reveal it will be a close fight between the Sony PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect. Despite a significant difference in usage method, a similar number of respondents claimed that they definitely or probably would buy either platform. Kinect wins on two important dimensions that are predictive of market success: uniqueness and believability. Given a new usage experience, one might expect some level of skepticism among respondents for Kinect. Surprisingly, though, Kinect excels on both uniqueness and believability vs. other tech products in the Vantis database. PS Move is rather weak on both dimensions," Ipsos stated. "While there are a lot of factors other than consumer appeal that influence demand, the underlying potential for Xbox Kinect looks very good."
Furthermore, Ipsos tried out two different communication methods with consumers and found that Microsoft's simplified marketing message of "no controller required" is definitely a smarter strategy than communicating a multitude of features about Kinect and its technology.
Ipsos continued, "Microsoft's Kinect offers several features such as voice commands, hand gestures and the ability to communicate with friends and family. Vantis tested two ways to serve up all these benefits. The key for Microsoft is to remain focused on the primary differentiating aspect of Kinect, i.e., 'no controller required'. Needlessly adding more messages around features and applications may result in the dilution of the critical consumer communication. This dilution is magnified to the point that the Buzz Power for Kinect drops from an impressive top 20 percentile to a dismal below average. The strength of Kinect lies in its simplicity of use."
