PrimeSense, the company behind Microsoft Kinect’s camera, initially pitched its motion sensing technology to Apple, according to Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac.
PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha told Kahney that his company backed out of talks because Apple was, well, “a pain in the ass.”
At the time of the talks Apple “was the most natural place for the technology,” Beracha says. It had just released the iPhone and its multitouch UI. PrimeSense was hoping to be the next step in UI innovation.
Things went south after Apple asked Beracha “to sign a stack of crippling legal agreements and NDAs,” Kahney reports.
Beracha figured his company’s tech was solid and wouldn’t have trouble finding another buyer.
The rest is history.
In June 2009, Microsoft teased the Kinect, then known as “Project Natal” at E3 with the tagline “You are the controller.” The peripheral launched this week and Microsoft expects to sell 5 million by the end of this quarter, according to Bloomberg.
