I saw the commercial for this a few weeks and thought who the hell would buy this garbage, you can just tell when companies like microsoft are trying extremely hard to face their competition, even google who had absolutely no market share in the mobile phone area even has one up on microsoft. Imagine, 2 years to develop, huge amounts of dollars and 2 months after release ending the entire production, way to go. This phone seemed more like a social networking device to show everyone what you were doing and how you were doing, connecting you to facebook and twitter which is already so completely over rated. It was just a complete waste of time, did microsoft actually believe people would run to buy this phone. They tried to be cool and up to date with this phone but it didn't work. June 30, 2010 1:57 PM PDT Microsoft pulls the plug on Kin by Ina Fried Microsoft has decided not to move forward with the Kin, a phone aimed at avid social-networking users. (Credit: CNET) Amid anemic sales, Microsoft has decided to halt work on its Kin phone less than two months after the product hit the market. The social media-oriented phone will not make its planned European debut and Microsoft is shifting the entire Kin team to work on Windows Phone 7, the Microsoft smartphone operating system due out later this year. Andy Lees, who heads up the company's cell phone efforts announced the move to Microsoft workers earlier on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company. Microsoft's ill-fated Kin (photos) Microsoft confirmed the move in a statement to CNET. "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." The Kin, which made its debut just two months ago at an event in San Francisco, was the result of several years of work by Microsoft and stemmed from its 2008 acquisition of Sidekick maker Danger. However, despite a few innovative features including streaming music and a Web-based companion site, the Kin phones were criticized for missing key features, such as a calendar, as well as because the monthly fees for the phone were as high as more capable smartphones, such as the iPhone and Android-based devices. With Microsoft's decision, it is now unclear whether there will ever be software updates to the phone, including one originally planned for this summer. Over the weekend, Verizon cut the price on the two Kin models by as much as 50 percent. Microsoft won't say how much it spent on the Kin launch, but it has been backed by significant TV, Web, and print and radio advertising campaigns. Neither Verizon nor Microsoft would say how many devices were sold, but a source told CNET that the number of Kins sold thus far is more than 1,000 but south of 10,000--significantly below expectations. "We don't share sales data or marketing strategies but the device remains an important part of our portfolio," a Verizon representative said in a statement. Roz Ho, the Microsoft executive who lead the unit that developed the Kin will oversee the transition of the team and then move to an as-yet-determined role at the company, according to a source. Despite spending several hundred million dollars to buy Danger, Microsoft has little to show for the purchase, aside from some bruises to its image. The first hit came last year with a major outage and data loss to Danger's flagship product, the T-Mobile sidekick. The Kin marked several years of work on a top-secret "Pink" project aimed at developing new devices and services for the same youthful, always-connected demographic that had once been attracted to the Sidekick. It is unclear what, if any of the Pink effort might find its way into Windows Phone down the road. The demise of the Kin adds to the pressure on the Windows Phone 7 team to deliver a compelling product this holiday season. Microsoft got some plaudits when it unveiled the new-look operating system at Mobile World Congress. However, since then Android has continued to rapidly gain momentum and sales, while Apple has unveiled a new iPhone and new version of its operating system that added support for video conferencing, multitasking and more.
Is that a smiley face button on the keyboard? really? that is sad and no wonder Apple is kicking the crap out of Microsoft lately. Microsoft has only been in the mobile phone business for 7 years or longer now and this is the best they come up with. I had a Samsung phone with Windows Mobile about 5 years ago. You'd think they could be a little more competitive than this.
Ha that reminds me, I had the tmobile pocket pc from 2003 with windows mobile, at the time it was one of the most advanced phones, you would actually think microsoft would have played their cards right at the mobile software game and take the lead since they had such a huge head start but I guess not.
Yeah, I was surfing the web on my phone 5 years ago with Windows Mobile and thinking wow this is really cool can't wait to see what they come up with next. I'm still waiting...
Billions of Cash, and this is what they come out with. I always thought trash belongs in the can and not on shelves.
Just to underscore the obvious, here is an example of a company asleep at the switch. Below is an image of Pocket PC 2000 forerunner to Windows Mobile (left) compared with Windows Mobile 2008 (right). There is absolutely no doubt as to why Microsoft failed from looking at this and I wonder if they ever really took this market seriously. I'll bet they never imagined Apple would have a larger market cap now... The picture below represents the results of a decade of work in the mobile device business. Sad. <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2885892>
Before the pocket pc i was surfing the web with my motorola nextel probably 9-10 years ago, trading, grabbing the latest stock quotes on the go, weather and news, after that I bought the pocket pc with tmobile service back in 2003, i was probably one of the first people to have the ability to actually surf the web on my phone, I paid about $350-$400 for the phone and got that specific phone because of the unlimted data at the time for $19.99. I was way ahead of the trend by at least 7 years, everyone thought surfing thd net on the phone was just a trend. It was a little bigger than the iphone, now i bought this phone when thin was in and anything bigger than a motorola startac was gigantic. Nearly every time I it had out someone would laugh at it especially my friends. Fast forward 7 years later and if your not carrying the newest smartphone your considered old school.
wow, that thing is pretty hideous looking. i hope it came free with a service plan. Microsoft can't compete on hardware and it seems they are losing focus on software to. If you try to be everything to everyone you'll be nothing to no one.. or however that saying goes.