Microsoft pulls plug on Kin phones
 

Well that didn't take long.

Can you say FLOP?

snip/ SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has pulled the plug on a new generation of smartphones less than three months after unveiling the devices that were part of its efforts to catch-up with Apple Inc and Google Inc in the fast-growing mobile market. /snip

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_microsoft_kin

The Kin phones were never designed to catch up with Apple or Google - and it was never positioned in that market, so that part of the Reuters article is total BS as usual.

It was designed by/for the Sidekick market, and those kids have already moved on to other devices. The Kin was not a bad phone, but it should have come with a $10 data plan and be available at the local Walmart for $49.99. They had it overpriced, on regular data plans, and that will always be a sure way to kill any product.

Windows 7 is the Microsoft answer to the iPhone and Android devices - and that has the potential to actually make a difference. Kin was a bad idea, 2 years too late, on bad plans.

^
Exactly. The T-Mobile Nuron(Nokia 5230) is a S60 device but you only pay $10 for internet AND it does free turn by turn GPS. That is what the Kin should've been, not the wannabe smartphone it is ...

It had the worst advertising campaign I've seen on any phone in ages. Even the Pre was better.

It was advertising stuff nobody in it's target market would care about. There was nothing to make anybody even the least bit interested in even going to a website to find out more about it. They killed it.

Microsoft made a phone name Kin?

I know I saw commercials for it this week, perhaps even yesterday.

How many users are stuck with one for two years?

Not too many(thankfuly)...I haven't seen any in real life.

one report is that only 500 were sold.

IIRC, I saw a commercial for them just last night. The first time I saw one of these, I remember thinking, "Who on earth would want one of those?" It looked pretty clunky, like the AMC Pacer of phones.

i found the commercials on youtube last night.

one has a guy taking a photo under his shirt and sending it to a girl and the other is about a guy stalking a girl on facebook whom she later meets. how either of those would entice someone to buy a kin, i do not know.

phonescoop did a review and basically had absolutely nothing good to say, at all.

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/a...p?a=372&p=2662

But worst of all, the Kin Two can't even nail the basics. Making calls is difficult, and calls sound terrible. Reception and battery life are a mixed bag, mostly full of coal.
...
I'll make this simple. Buy something else.

and what's with not having instant messaging on a phone aimed at teenagers? even the twitter app was crippled. did they really expect that it would sell??

so Microsoft is killing off the Kin already? Who's going to notify the next-of-Kin? :confused:

Cellphone kiosks at the mall today still had Kin advertising up.