Microsoft Kin is no more
Summary: After just two months, Microsoft has pulled the plug on the Kin handset line.
After just two months, Microsoft has pulled the plug on the Kin handset line.
"We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned," the company said. "Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."
Here's my take on this:
- First off, Kin never made any sense to me right from the start. Sure, make a product aimed at the young market, but there was no need to create a whole new mobile platform for it. That was just crazy and showed that Microsoft was unfocused in it's approach to mobile.
- Then there affordability. Kin handset plus contract amounted to quite a pretty penny. Given the market it was aimed at, it made little sense.
- This is also bad news for Microsoft in terms of the company's relations with developers and third-party service providers. Developing, and then abandoning platforms is bad for business. Everyone (from developers to users) need confidence that a platform will offer stability and be able to weather storms. What Microsoft has done here with Kin undermines this principal.
- In putting this platform on sale, and then pulling it, not only has Microsoft in effect duped customers into a dead end product, but also handed customers over to it's rivals.
Is anyone really in charge of mobile over at Microsoft? I'm seriously beginning to doubt it.
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Talkback
Can MS be no more?
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
[i]MS do the world a favor and go away. [/i]
You first.
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
Naah, been in the business before MS, live through their crap and will evolve past them.
We just need more to bypass MS and send them to the grave.
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
They'll be around far longer than you will be.
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
Agreed!
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
You, like the rest of your zdnet bloggers, want to put the blame on Microsoft for this but that is as far from reality as you can get. What happened was Verizon shot themselves in the foot when they required a $30 data plan, essentially making Microsoft a victim here.
The Kin made perfect sense. It had a new intuitive UI. It would allow people to quickly update with their friends. How do you not get that? The affordability issue is a Verizon issue, not Microsoft. I have no idea what you mean by bad for developers, you are not a developer and Microsoft is not abandoning platforms. This is a step forward to Microsoft Windows Phone 7. Microsoft didn't dupe anyone. This is a Verizon issue and if you feel duped you need to take it up with them.
Is anyone really in charge of bloggers over at ZDNet? I?m seriously beginning to doubt it.
Their world is collapsing around them
Still there are the few who refuse to admit it. For a decade we've read their unsubstantiated posts; sure he's wearing clothes but only the intelligent can see them was their retort.
Fortunately for them the IT media, heavily lubricated by MS advertising, propelled their illusion; Groupthink was enough for them (and the courage of posting with anonymity).
Those of us on the front line couldn't understand the disconnect. They knock Apple, whilst praising a copy released several month/years later. They deny issues with Vista, when even MS ran from it. They talk enterprise as if they've never worked in one.
MS attempts to broaden their revenue base beyond windows and office have universally been unsuccessful, despite ploughing billions of dollars into them. USD8+ billion a year in claimed R&D, yet they can't generate products (let alone successful ones) the rate competitors do with a order of magnitude less spend.
But the titles and letters (MCSE) simply reinforce their gullibility today. Outed with the AGW loonies. Sure there are a few around, but their number dwindle everyday and the rest look on them with pity.
Those demanding they be clothed from the start feel vindicated. IT typically looks better clothed;-)
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
Was there a point in your ramblings? If so I must have missed it. Next time try to stay on topic so people can understand what the hell you are talking about.
Not that anyone is surprised...
To me
I think the Kin was more of an experiment that was cut early. I think there is something here we are not being told.
@Loverock: cut the crap, please?
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
What crap?
This crap:
[i]"You are so delusional about Microsoft I continue to question what the hell happened to you? All your articles are clickbait now and you seem to be out of touch with what is going on in the PC world and with Microsoft.
You, like the rest of your zdnet bloggers, want to put the blame on Microsoft for this but that is as far from reality as you can get. What happened was Verizon shot themselves in the foot when they required a $30 data plan, essentially making Microsoft a victim here.
The Kin made perfect sense. It had a new intuitive UI. It would allow people to quickly update with their friends. How do you not get that? The affordability issue is a Verizon issue, not Microsoft. I have no idea what you mean by bad for developers, you are not a developer and Microsoft is not abandoning platforms. This is a step forward to Microsoft Windows Phone 7. Microsoft didn't dupe anyone. This is a Verizon issue and if you feel duped you need to take it up with them.
Is anyone really in charge of bloggers over at ZDNet? I?m seriously beginning to doubt it. "[/i]
Hmmm not so sure about this...
Unfortunately for MS they don't have any control over availability, they are not the oem or the carrier. Verizon could have given it a $10 a month data plan or a $1000 a day data plan and MS couldnt do anything other than choose another carrier that theyd have no more control over.
As someone who has been developing for MS platforms for a long time I can tell you this has little to no bearing on the company?s relations with developers and third-party service providers. KIN had nothing to do with third party developers or service providers. MS is doing great work for developers on the WP7 front and no one with an ounce of brains would feel this undermines anything unrelated to KIN.
It was really Verizon that duped them. Im sure MS wishes Verizon had done things differently. That said this is about as dead end a product as the original iphone. No phone has more than a couple years of current relevence and it sounds like these phones will continue to work as advertised. I think existing KIN users having been lucky enough to experience the KIN studio will wish to migrate to WP7x where they can expect that experience to be available sooner than with any rivals.
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
and United Ted
Not only that!
Kirk, I agreed
Also, I'm wondering when JTK started practicing Origin :)
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
RE: Microsoft Kin is no more
The real "sticker shock" comes when two of these are added to the cart at Verizon (it is buy one get one free now), the monthly cost skyrockets to over $300 a month for the unlimited plans -- as required since we all know how these overages add up. I might as well just buy a new car and drive to my friends houses because that is more than my lease payment, full coverage insurance, and gas every month.
On another note, the one thing that is truly bothering me about nearly all such blog posts here on ZDNet is the serious lacking of grammar and spell checking. Using speech recognition much? Maybe much too much, but it is time to stop, or at least proofread a post before posting it. How irritating it is when a sentence has to be decrypted because the grammar is poor or the improper word is used; like the ever irritating misuse of "two", "to", and "too", or "there" and "their".
My comments, per ZDNet, contain profanities
Test - the word redneck