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The Return of the Microsoft Kin
symbolset writes "In a surprising turn of events, Engadget is reporting that the Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two will have an encore in the market. Some years ago Microsoft purchased Danger, Inc, services provider for the legendary Sidekick line of phones, and set upon refreshing them for a new generation in 'Project Pink.' Several project restarts and one data loss incident later, the project had lost favor internally and relations with the launch carrier Verizon had gone sour. The product was launched anyway to dismal sales and yanked from the market in under two months. According to the article, the costly data plan was thought to be to blame for the poor sales, so cellular data services and features that require them have been removed."
As nobody cares...
Keeping the "Kin" name would kill this before it even starts. It carries such a strong negative connotation with it that they would be likely to sell any units...perception is everything when it comes to the mobile space.
Living With a Nerd
I can't possibly understand this. Anyone with half a brain who picked up a Kin phone could see that the things were atrocious. It was like some 70 year old engineer decided he was going to make a phone that was all hip and "did all that music stuff the young kids like". Totally out of touch with the market and any sane school of thought regarding a UI.
Oh well though. If Microsoft feeling like flushing EVEN MORE money down the drain, then who am I to stop them.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Amazing how Microsoft can release multiple devices that partly compete against each other... you could see someone considering a WP7 phone for the social aspects, then saying "well the Kin is cheaper, and I can do some social things on it so good enough."
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If poor sales didn't kill the sidekick, losing all their customer data due to a server loss certainly finished them off. Whose brilliant idea was it to have no backup redundancies and to destroy client-side copies through a launch synch feature that gleefully "copied" empty directories to the user's phones?
Kin is what you get from inbreeding!!
Not good
So the phone is being re-released, sans any sort of internet connectivity, thereby killing 95% of the gimmick. Good move Vicrosoft. I'm sure sales will skyrocket now.
so cellular data services and features that require them have been removed.
Then the article closes with:
Seriously, who wants a Kin without the unlimited photo uploads?
I thought the entire point of the Kin was that you could connect to social networking services from anywhere. Removing that ability cripples the phone. But let us suppose that they aer right: buyers want to save money by only using those features when they are connected to WiFi. So be it - no hardware or software changes are required to do that.
Seems to me that a better option would be to take the Kin functionality and sell a Kin app for Windows 7. Or bundle it. But as the article points out, this may just be a way to unload the hardware backlog.
Between the Kinect and the Kindle, do we really need any more Kin* product names?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Thish Kin shing ish a Khinshpirashy.
And would like to get rid of them without just burning it down.
so now it's a feature-phone without the important data-centric applications. !?!?
...like that beautiful dominatrix. Controlling, manipulative, and demeaning. An almost supernatural beauty though, and looks darned good in a corset, making it hard to resist.
...like the sweet girl next door. She looks good in a more subdued way. Less makeup. She'll let you do try anything in the sack...
Oh, great. Just great. So much for being able to think about work at all.
Sheesh.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I wonder whether Microsoft's 'kin phones will be any better than their 'kin operating systems or 'kin applications. Un 'kin likely.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
This is a zombie story.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
In the UK, PAYG phones are getting data thrown in for free with top-ups. The equivalent of ~$16/month in top-ups will get you unlimited internets + some reasonable amount of mins and texts to go with some reasonably inexpensive but good smartphones, like the Sony X10 mini. If that sort of pricing went down in the US, this phone would have a chance. I thought it was quite nifty.
Because before the iPhone, everyone else was already selling touchscreen smartphones with massive app stores, developers were cashing in on the huge new app market, and people around the world were ditching their feature phones for smartphones.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
They're just trying to get rid of all the unsold hardware they have lying around in warehouses.
Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day! Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day!
I don't think this competes directly with WP7, but it's more of an attempt to grab what's left of the low end market that no one is focusing on anymore. Not necessarily a bad move, but it's a market that's shrinking and probably won't exist 5 years from now.
In that regard is is stealing market from WP7, even if there were no overlap (I still think there is some although it's not even 50%). Because Microsoft should be trying to shrink down that five year window which helps push more people into using WP7 - I read some other commentary on the device that Microsoft may not be trying to take a bunch of market away from Android or the iPhone, as they are trying to convince a ton of users not yet in the smartphone market to go with WP7 as the initial choice. So every Kin sale is kind of a last opportunity to convert a new user into the WP7 family, and the way they are marketing WP7 they seem to be targeting really similar uses (check social media, done).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft has unveiled its new Zune One and Zune Two mobile phones for unusually stupid social-networking enthusiasts in their late teens and early twenties with a higher income than their IQ.
Team leader Roz Ho said the company had tried to create a Microsoft gadget that people actually wanted to have, like the XBox 360, but that actually worked properly.
"Get your Friendster and your MySpace!" said Ms Ho. "We studied consumer habits and built the perfect phone for the, uh, 'social generation,'" she air-quoted, "to make it 'fab' and 'bling' — I mean, of course, 'Bing!' — for people too dumb to work an iPhone to share their lives moment to moment."
The handset is of simple design for simple people. The keyboard engages caps lock at random and interjects common "chat" acronyms like "LOL" and "OMG" and "RTFM" should too many words in a row be spelt correctly. A breathalyzer automatically switches on the video camera in the event of excessive alcohol consumption. As well as the usual daily crashes, the Blue Screen of Death can be invoked by the user so as to have a suitable excuse not to answer a text. Later revisions of the phone may include making voice calls.
"We are excited to be the exclusive carrier for this exciting new Microsoft phone in the exciting US," said John Harrobin, Senior Vice President of Paperclip Filing, Morning Drunkenness and Excited Press Release Quotes at Verizon Wireless. "Because we fucking hate you people. We really do."
Roz Ho was previously leader of the Microsoft team that lost all the data on everyone's T-Mobile Sidekick phones last year when the systems team was told not to bother with backups.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
See, adding in the "on a cold day" bit just makes me think about what cold air does to girl parts, and then I'm just thinking about perky girl parts in general, which leads us right back to not being able to think about work...
Frickem frackem, grimble grumble.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I just wish they'd continue developing the Courier. That thing looked awesome. Looked like it'd kill the iPad on the first day. Too bad.
but thanks for the laugh :)
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
The first Kin would have sold incredibly well, but tragically a deal with The Situation to carry on on the "Jersey Shore" fell through when it turned out the various oils he used caused shorts in the keyboard and also the electronics tended to be eaten by a wide variety of biologic organisms living in the hot tub.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Leave Kin alone. Leave it ALONE!