How Many Kins Did Microsoft Sell in Two Months?
Over the last 24 hours or so, there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft's Kin messaging phones, particularly how many Redmond managed to shift before they pulled the plug.
Microsoft announced the axing of the Kin One and Kin Two less than two months after the phones hit stores, and most people drew the same conclusion: sales must have been absolutely abysmal. Well, John Gruber (Daring Fireball) and his well-placed little birdie seem to think so. According to Gruber's birdie, Microsoft and Verizon Wireless sold just 503 Kins.
Now, 503 phones over a period of two months isn't just bad; it's awful. Woeful sales like that don't come from poor marketing, they're the result of an uninteresting product. But don't fret Kin fans (if you really do exist), things may not be as bad as they seem!
PocketNow has its own source who says Microsoft sold way more than 500. PN's source is the Kin Facebook page, which puts the number of monthly active users for the Kin Facebook application at 8,810. You can't use the Facebook for Kin from anything but a Kin, so doesn't that mean Microsoft must have sold more than 500? In fact, doesn't that mean Microsoft sold more than 8,000? Not necessarily.
The first thing to note here is that companies launching new products often dish out samples by the bucketful. Whether they're given to the press for review, or given away free at company functions (à la Google at Google I/O), it's safe to assume that a big company like Microsoft would probably go through a fair amount of Kins before the device even hit retail.
The second thing to note is that Verizon Wireless has 2,000 stores nationwide and those 2,000 stores probably have had a few Kins on display for people to try out. A sensible number of display units per store would be about three or four. Considering these units are aimed at convincing customers this is the phone for them, Verizon staff would have to download all kinds of applications to flesh out the experience and show customers what it's really like to own a Kin. Microsoft touts the Kin as a social phone, so naturally, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook would all be there. At four units per store, that brings us up to about 8,000 active devices that haven't been sold, but were just sitting in Verizon Wireless stores.
So, discounting devices given to Microsoft employees, PR people and the press, how many Kins did Microsoft sell? That's a question Ballmer and his crew have yet to address. However, if you take a look at that Facebook app fan page, you'll see that while there are 8,810 monthly users, there are only 583 fans of the page. Really, at the end of the day, it's anyone's guess as to how many Microsoft actually sold. So until someone at Microsoft is willing to step up and reveal the magic number, we're free to speculate all we like.
Do you know anyone with a Kin? Let us know in the comments below!
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From my recent learning experience...Verizon's display devices are dummy units with limited funtionality and are there to show menus and what the device is able to do once it is activated. There are actually Verizon dummy versions of the Samsung Convoy cell phone which I just purchased on Ebay for sale..and there seems to be a fair amount of them available. What you would use them for is beyond me...maybe movie props?
I would have to think they would have sold more than 500...if not...that is just sad. It looked like a fail product when I saw the commercial BUT I bet it's antenna works any way you hold it!!!
They sold terribly because they look like crap and probably performed like crap.
And no, I don't know anyone with a kin. At all.
The Kin was dead even before it came to market. It was just plain bad imo.
Yeah, I have a Kin. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?
wtf is a kin?
I had never heard of them til now. Not available in Canada?
You Canadians are SO lucky... Universal Health Care and NO Kins.
You Canadians are SO lucky... Universal Health Care and NO Kins.
Ya hows that health care working for you guys?
oh you're still waiting for them to attach that finger you lost 4 months ago...
Kin, reteaching the lesson that was Zune.
I didn't even know Kin was launched...
I knew that piece of **** was going to flop even before release
Kin was complete garbage, just like every other phone product Microsoft has ever made. They just don't have a clue when it comes to phones. Windows Mobile is a bad joke, it has what, 1% market share? The phone world right now is Android vs. iPhone. There are no other players that matter.
@wotan
Nokia makes a nice system with Symbian. To say they aren't "players" is a bit naive.
Yeah, I have a Kin. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?
hold on to that kin like it was your own child dude... it's gonna be worth a lot one day, it's a collectors item for sure
Actually, they are. My first question when I read the title was "WTF is a kin?"
My experience has been that they are fully web functional phones. You could set up email, facebook, etc on them. I usually cant text or call anyone but I can do just about everything else.
I didn't even know Kin was launched...
I honestly didn't know it had launched either. I thought Kin was launching later this year.
I bet ya Jane owns a Kin.
You've got to be kidding. The cell phone company stores I've visited here in Canada only have dummy phones. When I was thinking about an Android phone, the only reason I got to try it hands on was the salesman had his own with him and let me try it.
The cell phone companies here are cheap when it comes to showing you product, pricey when it comes to service.
The phone world right now is Android vs. iPhone. There are no other players that matter.
Ever hear of something called Blackberry?
sure i love social networking, but i wont buy a social networking phone. lol , stupid newbies.
I bet a Kin would look really cool in a microwave, right next to a JooJoo...
Ya hows that health care working for you guys?oh you're still waiting for them to attach that finger you lost 4 months ago...
Don't spread FUD. It doesn't work that way.
The phone world right now is Android vs. iPhone. There are no other players that matter.
No, the phone world in the US - and US only. Elsewhere, other systems hold majority share. Sorry to burst your bubble.
No, the phone world in the US - and US only. Elsewhere, other systems hold majority share. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Very true. I live in the UK and I don't know a single person that has an android phone. Most people have iPhones or are planning on buying iPhones. Some have blackberries. I've certainly never seen a facebook update saying one of my friends installed the android facebook app.
I didn't even know Kin was launched...
I didn't even know Kin existed... really.
A feature phone with smartphone tag... rocket scientist anyone?
Kin is not in Canada, thankful or not. I was shocked one of the model like a hockey puck does exist, I thought it was just HTML coding error when I saw one ad.
Windows Mobile and Palm OS even as phones can run completely independent of computer; adding up appropriate freeware software pieces to them then they are miniature computers minus the hardcore gaming. Same is not true to Kin.
Kin? I read those only in websites and magazines.
When die microsoft launch it? What is the price? Where to find it?
And perhaps, What is that thing anyway?
I didn't even get a chance to take a look or try or touch it even for 1 second. I can't find it anywhere in stores.
If microsoft hopes that people will buy something they have never heard of or even saw it, then.. microsoft is really stupid.
Now they stopped the production and abandon those Kins?
This is just like stop producing and abandoning something which never exists.
The marketing strategy is really awful, if I may say so myself.
wtf is a kin?
Slide your fingers, somewhere warm. Slide your fingers, where it stinks.
Never heard of a Kin. I'm in UK, and I know of no one who has an Android phone, only about a dozen people who have an iPhone, so to say that "most" people here have an iPhone is a little inaccurate.
Most people here don't have smart phones. I used to have a Samsung smartphone with Windows mobile on it. Emphasis on USED to own one. Never again. It crashed about 3 times a day, so I got a warranty replacement, and guess what? That crashed about 3 times a day too. I went back to my old Sony Ericsson W810i, about 5 - 6 years old and it works a treat.
Smart phone = Dumb phone.
Slide your fingers, somewhere warm. Slide your fingers, where it stinks.
I've got one hand in the oven and the other hand is in my sock! This isn't working out.
No Tonky- Samsung do not do good smartphone--
I have used smartphones from the XDA2 Exec all WinMO and they are anything from dumb, simple PEBKAC issues 99% of the time, just like a PC/MAC
Mori, you may well be right, and I will submit to your experiences over my own limited ones, but the phone crashing on me and having to remove the battery just to reset it is not a PEBKAC error. For now, I'll keep my W810i, until I really must have something else. I have laptops and PC's for everyting else I need right now.