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The Return of the Microsoft Kin

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-at-first-you-really-really-don't-succeed dept.

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."

7 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Really?? by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Really?? by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It works, but it's not the same strategy. Personally, I'm not a fan of Apple's stuff because I don't like the lockdowns. The stark reality though is that MOST of the populace doesn't care about that at all.

      What Apple DOES deliver is a very GOOD user experience and UI. It's within their little "walled garden" and you're restricted in what you can do, but within those walls, the garden pretty much kicks ass.

      I'm not even sure what level of restrictions MS put on these phones - I never cared enough to check into it (my wager though, being MS, is that they were pretty locked down). I can honestly say though that the UI sucked.

      Or translated into fantasies:

      Apple's iOS is 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.

      Android is 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, but her own skills aren't as polished as you'd like. She also has a bad habit of gossiping about your private details with your friends.

      MS Kin is like a 60 year old fat dominatrix. Not much going on there, and just trying to play the game because she heard the young'uns were having fun with it.

      While I can respect anyone who chooses options 1 or 2, very few people are going to choose #3.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  2. Re:They better be renaming it by MBCook · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With who, techies? With the general public, I'd bet 95%+ have never heard of the thing and thus have no opinion in either direction.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. You are right by Infonaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
  4. Re:Plan B after WinPhone 7 bombed? by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    God damn it's hilarious when some jackhole declares a product a failure after a week or two. Moron.

  5. Re:They better be renaming it by mark72005 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They haven't stopped the incompetence - this is the same KIN phone, stripped of the data features.

    So basically you have a phone that can use Zune pass to listen to music if there's Wifi around.

    Smells like a warehouse full of unsold KINs that need to ship before they get the Pac Man/Atari 2600 treatment

  6. Re:Microsoft releases world's dumbest smartphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    [...] unusually stupid social-networking enthusiasts in their late teens and early twenties with a higher income than their IQ.

    Frankly, if it weren't, I'd be legitimately worried. So you're saying people with incomes over, oh, let's be generous and say $140 per... um... week? Month? Year? Those are the people with smartphones?

    I'm a bit worried about the people whose IQs are HIGHER than their incomes. Worried because they can probably destroy whole cities just with their minds.