Microsoft Kills Off Kin Phones After 48 Days
It's been less than two months since Microsoft revealed its Kin line of smartphones to the world but the company is already pulling the plug on the messaging phones.
When Kin One and Kin Two launched, everyone was a little bit puzzled. Why would Microsoft announce Windows Phone 7 but run a different OS on the first two own-brand phones it's ever produced? And these were cheap phones aimed at social networking and messaging; no one ever expected Microsoft to first target a niche market before releasing a phone for everyone.
It looks like Microsoft agrees with us. Just 48 days after the devices went on sale, Redmond has announced it is dropping the Kin line. It won't be debuting in Europe this autumn and the team working on it will join the Windows Phone 7 team, where Microsoft will be focusing its efforts going forward.
"We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. 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."
The Kin One was a small, round device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; a 2.6-inch (320x240) QVGA touch screen; a Tegra APX2600 CPU; 256MB of DDR RAM; an accelerometer; GPS chips; 802.11b/g, EvDO Rev. A; Bluetooth 2.1; a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, and 4GB of storage.
The Kin Two boasted 8GB of storage; an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash the ability to shoot HD video; a 3.4-inch (480x320) HVGA touch screen; a Tegra APX2600 CPU; 256MB of DDR RAM; an accelerometer; GPS chips; 802.11b/g, EvDO Rev. A and Bluetooth 2.1.
They both shared the same foundation as Windows Phone 7 but don't run the shiny, new OS.
Rest in peace, Kin. We hardly knew ye.
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Microsoft pretty much fails at phones
who would buy such a bad phone to begin with...
Shouldn't have started these to begin with. I don't understand how they thought it was a good idea.
I wonder if this means that they will not produce windows phone 7 phones that target the same niche.
I'm surprised they lasted this long.
Stupid looking phone with a stupid sounding name. They probably sold 5 in the first month. I bet there's gonna be some really good deals on kin phones soon.
R.I.P Kin.
I wonder how can Steve approve this thing to began with.
This show how good steve is as a CEO of M$.
really glad they ended this. those phones are garbage
Dear Bill,
PLEASE COME BACK!...
That's kind of a shame, my cousin wants one of these, I was going to get her one, it's only $50 anyway. They looked fairly neat to me. There are actually quite a few phones that look like the KIN One, and honestly, if a name alone is going to turn you off a product, there's a lot of cool shit out there you're missing.
Well what do you know, another example of Microsoft playing "beta tester" with its customers. I don't know who's in charge of their mobile programs, but they've been killing off support for new products pretty often lately, and this new business model doesn't reflect well on Microsoft. I'll just quote an earlier post of relevance to this ill conceived plan:
"Yaa... the dirty little secret we're not being told is that Microsoft has basically dumped development support for their Zune HD "beta testers", sacrificing a good portion of their loyal fan base in order to accelerate the development of their Windows Phone 7 OS and hardware platform. Much of the UI is merely an evolution of the one found in the Zune HD, but the apps and games created and ported to this new WP7 platform using XNA 4.0 will not be compatible with the Zune HD. And yes, that includes the recently announced Xbox Live Arcade games.
It really sucks, but I think Microsoft has made a huge mistake in overlooking the Zune HD like this, a device that isn't even a year old. I can't imagine what would've happened if similar actions were taken against the Moto Droid (people would probably think twice before buying the Droid 2)."
Oops, and the next day something very similar to my hypothetical situation comes true. I think this current situation with the Kin is very similar, and it's pretty shameful of Microsoft to 'use' their customers in this way. So what happens if WP7 doesn't pan out quite as well as they're anticipating? Will they simply kill support for it a few months later in anticipation of something newer and better? Will people then justify it by saying "who would buy such a bad phone to begin with..."? The problem isn't that consumers are buying these products, it's that Microsoft is using them to achieve a powerful, robust, and popular mobile platform, no matter how many short lived non-supported iterations it takes. Supporting 'older' products and having backwards compatibility is such a burden.
It also required the 30 dollar data plan. You can get the droid incredible that is a thousand times better for a 100 bucks more and with the same exact plan.
Im not sure if integrating a team that made KIN a reality is a positive move for the WP7 team. The last thing WP7 needs is a team full of bad ideas!
50 dollars plus the 30 dollar data plan! Just get a smart phone.
That's kind of a shame, my cousin wants one of these, I was going to get her one, it's only $50 anyway. They looked fairly neat to me. There are actually quite a few phones that look like the KIN One, and honestly, if a name alone is going to turn you off a product, there's a lot of cool shit out there you're missing.
Not sure why Microsoft released this. It should've at least ran Windows Phone 7...
Ouch. Must've really been a failure. I see a commercial for it on almost every commercial break on TV.
Well that was rather pointless...
You are talking about the current Kin phones like they are no more, "The Kin One was a small... The Kin Two boasted 8GB of storage..." However, your article quotes MS as saying "We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."
Are they stopping production of the current ones? It looks to me like they are just not rolling it out to new markets or developing new phones.
Complete failure. Microsoft products do very well in the market, when it something they bought from someone else. Look at Office. Look at IE. Both very successful, and both were bought from other companies. Products that Microsoft develops entirely on its own, by itself, are usually complete failures. This Kin phone is just another example of that.
I don't know why they're even bothering with Windows 7 mobile. The market is Android vs. iPhone. Windows Mobile is not even part of the equation. Zero, market share, cause nobody wants it. A new release that's too little too late is not going to change anything.
translation, they spent (bled) more on advertisement than on profits from selling those butt ugly phones.
Grand opening.
Grand closing.
I wouldn't call anything about this 'grand'.
I wonder how can Steve approve this thing to began with.This show how good steve is as a CEO of M$.
What?
I didn't think it was that bad. I would have purchased a kin before an iPhone, at least if they can actually be used as phones.
P.S. I have only seen a person talking on the iPhone 2x EVER. Why even have a phone a function? The same is pretty much true for the droid as well. I know a lot of people (especially iPhone users) that keep a second cell phone just for calls.
4GB barely enough to install Win7 on.
Terga processor, x86 compatible?
256MB RAM, WTF? Is that going to run Windows 95 or something?
320x240 pixels, just how many icons next to "my computer" and "recycle bin" are we going to be able to see on the screen at one given time?