Are Young, Social Media-Savvy Kids Important for Windows Phone 7?

[Brad Wasson]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/technology/05soft.html?_r=1&src=busln' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/t...?_r=1&src=busln</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft's engineers and executives spent two years creating a new line of smartphones with playful names that sounded like creatures straight out of "The Cat in the Hat" - Kin One and Kin Two. Stylish designs, an emphasis on flashy social-networking features and an all-out marketing blitz were meant to prove that Microsoft could build the right product at the right time for the finickiest customers - gossiping youngsters with gadget skills.&nbsp;</em><em>But last week, less than two months after the Kins arrived in stores, Microsoft said it would kill the products."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1278380682.usr110171.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Ashlee Vance from the NY Times has written a very pointed article about Microsoft having lost touch with targeted audiences on a number of fronts. Two particular audiences referred to are young people who Microsoft would have expected to be attracted to the Kin, and developers that are writing applications for mobile platforms. The article is a very interesting read, but overstated, in my opinion. Nevertheless, the article does make one ponder the question about the potential future success of Windows Phone 7. Will the new platform be attractive to young, social media-savvy consumers? Or, from a slightly different perspective, how important will that young market be to Windows Phone 7 success? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.</p>

[Fritzly]

This seems a better, although a scary one for people like me who are MS shareholders, analysis:

http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2010/07/kin-fusing-kin-clusion-to-kin-and-fy11.html

[TOCA]

Teens and tweens are the most important costumers in the cellphone market.

They are the ones that doesn't care what the phone does not do, but will swap in the old one after less than a year, if there's a new model out there looking more bling, or does the app of the day better than their friends phones does.

WM2003 did faily well, not because it was good at most Office apps but because it made a cheap satnav. Iphone does quite well today because it's in the media every day, getting free adverticing in all the news, when was the last time you saw CNN and all the other news broadcasters lining up for a live coverage of a new HTC release?

So for WP7 to make an impact it needs to be released at a media stunt, with all the fanboys lined up in front of all major resellers and all the staff of the shops cheering them in when the doors opens, and then they'll have to make all the comercial breaks as well as the news every day, for at least the next two months, telling about what famous person has now bought one (make sure Paris gets one as well as all contenders in Paradise Hotel!!).

For the rest of us, we who just wants the darn thing to do what we ask of it, and wont be buying a new one for the next 2 years+, we'll just have to live with the fact that our next phone has a lot of features we don't know what is for, and hope it at least does what we need it to do fairly well.