Microsoft kills KIN, ending Danger team's Pink Project
After just 48 days on the market, Microsoft has terminated its KIN phones aimed at the youth market due to a lack of interest from consumers.
KIN was the end result of Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, a Java-based smartphone platform that pioneered messaging-oriented phones targeted at younger people.
After buying Danger, Microsoft insisted on shifting the product a Windows CE kernel rather than Danger's already functional Java-based system. While working on the shift, Microsoft allowed its existing subscribers' data to exist without proper backups, resulting in an inevitable, massive cloud services data loss when its servers failed.
In order to make the new Pink devices profitable, Microsoft skimped on local storage and forced users to store all their data on the cloud (even photos taken with its camera). To keep service cheap, Microsoft limited email message updates to once every 15 minutes.
It then launched the once cheap, youth-oriented platform (previously running on T-Mobile with cut rate plans aimed at that demographic) on the Verizon Wireless network, which tried to charge users $70 per month for voice and data service, despite the device lacking any support for basic smartphone services such as calendar sync, instant messages, or even any email accounts other than Microsoft's own.
Microsoft then tried to sell users another $15 per month a Zune Pass music subscription, hoping to salvage its Zune business by tying it to smartphones. Unsurprisingly, after two years of development, KIN was pulled off the market in just 48 days after only selling a reported 500 units.
The next of KIN
The company wrote in an official statement, "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"
Much of the Danger/Pink team that worked on KIN has already left Microsoft following a rash of bad publicity about its cloud failure and several high profile leaks that seemed designed to derail the flawed project out of spite and unbridled frustration with the project's management.
The move to kill KIN follows Microsoft's announcement earlier this year that it would not be releasing its Courier concept as a real product.
KIN was the end result of Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, a Java-based smartphone platform that pioneered messaging-oriented phones targeted at younger people.
After buying Danger, Microsoft insisted on shifting the product a Windows CE kernel rather than Danger's already functional Java-based system. While working on the shift, Microsoft allowed its existing subscribers' data to exist without proper backups, resulting in an inevitable, massive cloud services data loss when its servers failed.
In order to make the new Pink devices profitable, Microsoft skimped on local storage and forced users to store all their data on the cloud (even photos taken with its camera). To keep service cheap, Microsoft limited email message updates to once every 15 minutes.
It then launched the once cheap, youth-oriented platform (previously running on T-Mobile with cut rate plans aimed at that demographic) on the Verizon Wireless network, which tried to charge users $70 per month for voice and data service, despite the device lacking any support for basic smartphone services such as calendar sync, instant messages, or even any email accounts other than Microsoft's own.
Microsoft then tried to sell users another $15 per month a Zune Pass music subscription, hoping to salvage its Zune business by tying it to smartphones. Unsurprisingly, after two years of development, KIN was pulled off the market in just 48 days after only selling a reported 500 units.
The next of KIN
The company wrote in an official statement, "We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones"
Much of the Danger/Pink team that worked on KIN has already left Microsoft following a rash of bad publicity about its cloud failure and several high profile leaks that seemed designed to derail the flawed project out of spite and unbridled frustration with the project's management.
The move to kill KIN follows Microsoft's announcement earlier this year that it would not be releasing its Courier concept as a real product.
Comments
The company wrote in an official statement, "We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones"
Typical Microsoft fashion. Take (buy) a potentially good company and run it into the ground. I think Microsoft spends more time and money coming up with a spin of marketing speak to make it sound like they were not in fact bumbling idiots running around with their head cut off.
If M$ keeps this up, they will be the ones that will truly be doomed...
Typical Microsoft fashion. Take (buy) a potentially good company and run it into the ground. I think Microsoft spends more time and money coming up with a spin of marketing speak to make it sound like they were not in fact bumbling idiots running around with their head cut off.
If M$ keeps this up, they will be the ones that will truly be doomed...
they'll probably stop selling windows mobile 7 (refuse to call it what M$ named it) phones shortly after they launch too.
This is what you get when you have a bunch of middle aged, out of touch, impacted colon, corner office schmucks in charge of making gadgets for the Justin Beiber generation.
The only thing Ballmer is worth is that 150 million license of Windows 7.
Is Steve Ballmer really any good as a CEO? Look, if it weren't for the licensing of Windows Ballmer would be in the garbage. He stinks as a CEO.
This is what you get when you have a bunch of middle aged, out of touch, impacted colon, corner office schmucks in charge of making gadgets for the Justin Beiber generation.
The only thing Ballmer is worth is that 150 million license of Windows 7.
Now was that really necessary?
As for Ballmore, I wonder how the MS Retail 'Enterprise' is working out for him
Things have really gone bad since Bill left.
While working on the shift, Microsoft allowed its existing subscribers' data to exist without proper backups, resulting in an inevitable, massive cloud services data loss when its servers failed.
Wasn't all of the data recovered eventually?
The fact that the Kin did not sell well tells me that Microsoft should change the user interface because if the face book social crowd did not buy the Kin, they will also not buy the Winblows phone 7 devices.
I agree that Steve sucks as a CEO, although I think he would make a good COO.
Ray Ozie also sucks as a visionary. He appears to be a one product man, (Azure) while Microsoft needs to think of many new innovative ways for MS to make money and that's not happening.
Bill Gates needs to come back to MS as CEO for a few years.
Perhaps he can forge some partnerships with Apple to help it succeed better in the cloud.
Perhaps MS can reorganize itself itself like a big startup "a la Apple Inc" to get ideas flowing at Microsoft again.
The board really needs shake up this company before it starts to falls apart.
Time will tell.
...hooked on that feeling.
Didnt knew Microsoft will fall to this level of mediocrity.
Calling this "mediocrity" is far too generous. This is the type of incompetence and arrogance for which the term "epic fail" was invented (even clichéd as it is.)
Any decent company (actually the Board) would recognize the failures in SB's type leadership and act accordingly. Without changing course, MS will do very poorly.
At some point in the not so distant future, MSFT will probably be a good investment; as a short sale.
Wasn't all of the data recovered eventually?
That's not the point. Yes it was but it should never have happened in the first place.
I'm not convinced Microsoft ever recovered from that debacle to be honest.
...KIN was pulled off the market in just 48 days after only selling a reported 500 units.
500 phones?! Thats unbelievably bad. I'd love to verify that number. One of the girls in the Kin tv ads was really cute. But 500 phones total, over 48 days?? You would think they'd be able to pull off better numbers just based on grandparents buying random junk for their grand kids they don't really want. "i want and iphone and got a kin
msft wold be a good thing
one day soon some 14 yr pimple faced whiz kid will write some ground breaking code and cripple msft .
9
because that is about 10 phones a day.
whist apple launches a new phone with 1.7 million sales in 3 days.
my, how the world has changed.
D.
This is such a distant memory, that I am surprised I even remember the feeling.
When they get it right, which is becoming less and less often, they still so some really good stuff. Windows 7 resides quite happily on various Mac partitions. It is stable and slick, it interface looks unified - the endless patching, though, continues to let it down.
I even went out today, and was even - dare I say it - excited about getting the revised Xbox 360 Slim - if only it was built like this from the start. Apart from the legacy power brick, everything about it is very coherent, from the design to the user interface and overall features of the whole 360 franchise.
The Kin phone should have gone the way of the Courier tablet. Microsoft is just copping such a pounding in the image stakes it's not funny - well it is, kinda
The Windows Phone 7, or whatever it's called, looks like it is going to flop too. I know they are trying to leverage the 360 on it, but they really should have been making a 360 centric entertainment phone - that would have got a lot of people (iPhone users) interested in it. As it is, Windows Phone 7 looks like it is trying to be a bit of everything to everybody, without really hitting the sweet spot for anybody.
Like Sony, Microsoft should be leveraging their gaming franchise in the mobile world and tying them very closely together. As a hardware company, which also makes phones, how is it that we are still waiting for a PSP phone after all these years?
whist apple launches a new phone with 1.7 million sales in 3 days.
my, how the world has changed.
150+ million Windows 7 licenses, god knows how many copies of Office and revenue and profits way ahead of Apple.
Things are certainly changing perhaps, but with Microsoft rolling in money with Windows + Office sales and not really making a killing in any other markets one could make an argument that things haven't changed that much yet.
Like Sony, Microsoft should be leveraging their gaming franchise in the mobile world and tying them very closely together. As a hardware company, which also makes phones, how is it that we are still waiting for a PSP phone after all these years?
Sony are getting pretty tight with Google. I'd bet my house that they are looking at bringing Playstation/PSN branded gaming to an Android-based phone.
I'm not sure they would go so far as to build it into Android though. It might stay a Sony-only add on.
In any case, Sony are one of the highest quality publishers around so it's going to make some kind of an impact.