Why We Need Xbox for Enterprises

Microsoft Xbox 360 is a toy for teen slackers who want to waste their youth immersed in war-game bloodbath fantasies, right?

Well, er, right. But it could be oh, so much more.

The reality is that Xbox is a very powerful PC, and one recently enhanced with the user interface of the future: gestures.

Gesture-based computing is going to take over the world from WIMP computing, which is the acronym for windows, icons, menus and pointing devices.

Gestures control current devices like the Microsoft Surface table, as well as Apple iPhones, iPods, iPads and the dozens of iPad imitators announced at CES.

And, of course, gestures control Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360.

Gestures now rule everything around the edges of computing, but not mainstream computing -- the desktop PC is still all WIMP, all the time for most of us.

What Apple Did

Don't look now, but Apple is slowly taking over the industry with a breathtaking, visionary strategy nobody foresaw. Here's what Apple is doing:

1. Invent a super elegant gesture-based touch interface, and bake it into a powerful cell phone operating system (later called iOS).

2. Ship a phone with iOS.

3. Ship a media player with iOS

4. Launch a super easy App store for iOS.

5. Ship a tablet with iOS.

This is what Apple has already done. In the future, they will almost certainly execute the rest of their industry take-over:

6. Ship a bigger tablet with iOS

7. Ship a desktop touch screen PC with a desktop version of iOS

This breathtaking strategy involves cannibalizing Apple's own OS X systems with the new gesture-based platforms. It involves using a tiny device, the iPhone, as a lever by which to move the world in Apple's direction.

I believe Apple will own more than 50% of PC market share in a few years if Microsoft doesn't do something equally bold.

What Microsoft Should Do

Microsoft can and should execute a similar strategy, but with Xbox instead of iPhone. Here's what Microsoft has already done:

1. Ship Xbox

2. Launch Xbox Live

3. Ship Kinect, which enables voice and gesture control of Xbox

So far, so good. Microsoft has a true killer device on its hands with Kinect. It's training millions of consumers to use and love gesture computing in the same way that the Apple iPhone did. Now it's time for Microsoft to complete this strategy by doing the following:

4. Launch an enterprise version of Xbox Live, which is installed and managed inside the corporate firewall.

5. Create a gesture- and voice-controlled version of all Office applications for Kinect for Xbox 360.

6. Invite developers to create enterprise Kinect for Xbox 360 apps.

Xbox for Enterprises would be great for everybody -- users, enterprises, partners and especially for Microsoft itself.

Great for Users

Executives and other business users would love to have giant screens in their offices and boardrooms. In offices, these would be used in addition to laptops on desks. In conference rooms, they would replace the over-priced and limited-use video conferencing systems.

By using voice and gestures, users would be able to see big-screen business dashboards all day updating with real-time data. With a quick hand-gesture, they could flip over to work on a presentation, do a big-screen video conference or even use voice commands to dictate an e-mail while pacing around the office.

Kinect-style interfaces also get users off their chairs and on their feet, which will help them deal with bad health caused by sitting all day.

Great for Enterprises

Big screens boost productivity. But we've already pushed the limits of how much screen we can handle when those screens are two feet away. A Kinect-style interface enables us to use ginormous screens, but more than 10 feet away.

Wall Street and other financial services companies – which already integrate walls of data, TV and personal feeds into single screens – would love these devices.