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  #1  
Old 06-30-2010, 10:33 PM
Jason Dunn
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Default Microsoft Puts a Bullet in Kin's Head

http://gizmodo.com/5576764/microsoft-kills-kin

"Just six weeks after launch, Microsoft's Kin, the social phone we wanted to love, is dead. Microsoft is pulling the plug, sources close to Microsoft tell us. There won't be a separate Kin product anymore. Effective immediately, Andy Lees is shoving the entire Kin team into the core Windows Phone 7 team, so there will just be one big group to focus on Windows Phone 7."

And there you have it. After only a few months Kin, launched with much fanfare, has been terminated by Microsoft. You can look at this one of two ways:

1) The leadership in the mobile devices group at Microsoft is so fragile and uncertain of their decisions that poor sales and criticism from the online media shook their confidence in Kin so much that they decided to nix it to spare themselves further criticism.

or

2) The leadership in the mobile devices group at Microsoft took a hard look at Kin and realized that as a company, they need to have one consumer-focused mobile OS, not two. They know Windows Phone 7 has a long road ahead, and they need every last talented person who understands mobile to focus on making it better.

Which do you think it is? I believe it's #2, and here's why: work on Kin started when the Windows Mobile team was at it's weakest, floundering around trying to figure out what to do next because of their inability to execute upon Photon. I think Kin was a way for some of the most talented people at Microsoft to lead the charge in a new direction, a new way of approaching mobility. For all the faults that Kin had, there were some really interesting, innovative concepts.

Although the short term pain, disappointment, and disillusionment will be hard to bear for the Kin team members, I dearly hope the passion they had for Kin gets transferred into Windows Phone 7.

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  #2  
Old 06-30-2010, 10:49 PM
Janak Parekh
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It's clearly a little bit of both. Microsoft lacked the leadership to make the Kin a killer product, and it launched halfheartedly, with price points that turned off even people who were interested in it. Given the amount of money they spent on Danger, this is really sad to see; Danger's original platform was superb and had a completely loyal userbase, and they've done an amazing job of destroying it. This is a pretty black mark against Roz Ho, her team really didn't execute.

But, as you mentioned, at least now that they've shaken up MED, they're cleaning house and consolidating a bit. Having a single unified product is better longer-term. I think this is a very good development from that regard, and it looks like they'll be keeping the engineering in-house.

One other question, though: how willing will carriers be to sell Microsoft solutions now? T-Mobile got burned with the Danger data loss, and now Verizon got burned (well, inasmuch as they invested in it) with the Kin shutdown. Doesn't really help MS's reputation in the phone market.

--janak
 
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  #3  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:14 PM
caywen
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Default It would have been successful...

... 5 years ago as a $20 phone. This is a situation where the corporate response to Courier and Kin were unfortunately reversed. They should have shipped the former and canned the latter before launch.

That said, I'm glad they are dumping this steaming pile. Kin should have been a WP7 app, not a platform. The team should have been 2 programmers, a PM, and a QA guy.
 
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Old 06-30-2010, 11:15 PM
sbrown23
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Or there is option #3 - Kin was a test platform for the cloud tech such as Kin Studio, which received raves at release. And now that tech is being folded into the Windows Phone 7 team? Doesn't something like Kin Studio seem well suited for a smartphone platform like WP7? Seems like we'll see a Windows Phone Studio at some point, replicating pix, etc. to the cloud.

Re: Verizon - I wouldn't say at all that Verizon got burned on this. I would call Verizon responsible for killing the platform with their ridiculous pricing. Saddling Kin with the same data plan requirement as a full smartphone? Pricing the device (initially) like a smartphone? If anything, I'd say Verizon burned Microsoft with their pricing the device to fail. There was no way it was going to compete successfully against Driod, Pre, and other full featured smartphones.
 
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  #5  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:19 PM
Janak Parekh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sbrown23 View Post
Or there is option #3 - Kin was a test platform for the cloud tech such as Kin Studio, which received raves at release. And now that tech is being folded into the Windows Phone 7 team? Doesn't something like Kin Studio seem well suited for a smartphone platform like WP7? Seems like we'll see a Windows Phone Studio at some point, replicating pix, etc. to the cloud.
If that's the case, this is a hugely expensive "test platform", considering that it was built by the remnants of Danger that Microsoft spent a pretty penny on. WP7, on the other hand, is something the mobile team has been working on for years, and it draws from the internal Zune efforts.

Quote:
Re: Verizon - I wouldn't say at all that Verizon got burned on this. I would call Verizon responsible for killing the platform with their ridiculous pricing. Saddling Kin with the same data plan requirement as a full smartphone? Pricing the device (initially) like a smartphone? If anything, I'd say Verizon burned Microsoft with their pricing the device to fail. There was no way it was going to compete successfully against Driod, Pre, and other full featured smartphones.
Why didn't Microsoft push back? Or shop it to another carrier? Sure, Verizon deserves some blame, but so does Microsoft for just playing along when there are carriers with cheaper data plans and a greater willingness to negotiate.

--janak
 
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  #6  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:31 PM
Jason Dunn
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Some good info here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20009336-56.html
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Old 06-30-2010, 11:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by caywen View Post
... 5 years ago as a $20 phone. This is a situation where the corporate response to Courier and Kin were unfortunately reversed. They should have shipped the former and canned the latter before launch.
Well, I'm not so sure about that - I read some info that said Courier couldn't have been built for less than $1500, making it a cost-prohibitive project. It would have flopped at retail because the costs were just too high. I really wanted to see it come to market, but not at a $1500 price point (or whatever it ended up being).
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Old 06-30-2010, 11:37 PM
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Originally Posted by sbrown23 View Post
Or there is option #3 - Kin was a test platform for the cloud tech such as Kin Studio, which received raves at release.
Nah. You don't release hardware and launch TV campaigns just to test cloud technology. Microsoft could have done that with an app on a Windows Phone.
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Old 06-30-2010, 11:38 PM
Jason Dunn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh View Post
Why didn't Microsoft push back? Or shop it to another carrier? Sure, Verizon deserves some blame, but so does Microsoft for just playing along when there are carriers with cheaper data plans and a greater willingness to negotiate.
Those are some big assumptions there. What makes you think that Microsoft didn't approach EVERY carrier and Verizon was the only one willing to take Kin? That's equally possible, and given the general stink that Microsoft has on them in terms of mobile, the more likely one.
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  #10  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:39 PM
Fritzly
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No matter if it is #1 or #2, the bottom line is the senior management behind the project did not have any clue about how to present and sell such a peculiar device.

Is this a phone for teens? Great so launch it first in Europe where rechargeable SIMs with no contract are extremely popular, especially among younger users.

Launch it with Carriers like Virgin, not one of these "mighty" US Carriers that so obtuse that are keeping this Country so behind the rest of the World. We are talking about Microsoft here no Joe Smith & Co; I cannot believe they could not have the resources to studt something so simple...

I cannot believe the overall amount of money wasted from the acquistion of Danger to this final, pretty obvious, final chapter. It is simply indecent.
 
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