Microsoft kills Kinect again
Microsoft is discontinuing the Kinect — again. The company officially stopped manufacturing the depth camera and microphone in 2017 and brought it back in a new form in 2019 as the Azure Kinect Developer Kit. Now, Microsoft is ending production of that, too, but it has partnered with some outside companies to provide options available for people who need similar types of devices.
If you want to get one of the remaining Azure Kinect Developer Kits, they’ll be available to buy through the end of October or “until supplies last,” Microsoft’s Swati Mehta said in a post on the company’s website. If you already have one, Mehta promises that you can keep using it “without disruption.”
Kinect was fun for a little while when it first came out, then they pivoted it towards AI interfaces as well as being built into consumer electronics such as smart TVs for hands-free / gesture controlled Remote control.