It has been announced that HP and Leap Motion have entered into a strategic partnership which will see unique HP devices equipped with the eponymous 3D motion controller. Initially a Leap Motion controller will be bundled with “select HP products” but the two companies will work to design and embed Leap Motion’s technology more elegantly into PC designs.
We first saw the Leap Motion controller about a year ago and summed it up as “A leap ahead of Kinect in pricing, size and accuracy”. The device is said to offer the “world’s most accurate 3D motion-control technology” and offers a winning combination of miniature size with fast response, accuracy and a competitive price. Of course it’s not all about the hardware; Leap has won some big name software development backers which are said to include Autodesk, Disney, and Corel. There are at least 12,000 developer units in circulation.
In January we learned that ASUS will adopt Leap Motion controller tech. It also “plans to bundle” the motion controller initially but would hopefully offer the more elegant integrated option with its PCs later on. Standalone Leap Motion controllers will be sold in retail at Best Buy and on Amazon from mid-May this year.
In the press release confirming the HP and Leap partnership both parties sounded pretty pleased about the new arrangement. Leap Motion co-founder and CEO Michael Buckwald said “The possibilities for innovation are incredible, when you think about what will come from this collaboration between two respected global leaders in their fields – HP, the world’s largest technology company and Leap Motion, creator of the world’s most powerful 3-D motion-control technology”.
Ron Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs at HP explained HP’s decision for the partnership “Customers want to go to the next level when creating and interacting with digital content.” Furthermore “Leap Motion’s groundbreaking 3-D motion control combined with HP technology and amazing developer apps will create incredible user experiences”.
Hewlett Packard could be an immensely important partner for Leap Motion. HP is still the world’s number one PC maker and sold nearly 12 million PCs in Q1 2013, about 16 per cent of the market. For comparison, up and coming ASUS sold nearly four and a half million PCs in the same quarter.
