Microsoft Kills Kin

Just six weeks after launch, Microsoft's Kin, the social phone we wanted to love, is dead. Microsoft is ending its short life, sources close to Microsoft tell us.

The major reason? Sales. Microsoft never confirmed (or denied) that only 500 Kins were sold, but it's clear that the response has been completely underwhelming.

[saint_john_paul_ii]

uh???? wow???

[Christopher]

Only 500 sold? Ouch.

Sorry, but just proof of Microsoft's inability to integrate software and hardware on their on. They just don't have the talent when it comes to hardware.

[darthv72]

I dont know for MS but some companies try to give their product or service adequate time to mass appeal. Not that there would be much appeal for another smart phone but this one was a little different.

Maybe they have other plans for the unit or better yet...the windows mobile os. That is really nice.

[HebrewHammer]

I totally read that wrong then! I thought it said 500,000! Yikes. I was going to say, thats not bad at all! LOL.

I was literally just telling my friend how awesome that phone looks! Its extremely cheap and has seemingly great compatibility with social networking. Not to mention it was so petite and compact! It looked like such an incredible concept. Truly is a shame. Im sorry MS :(

[badz149]

may god bless those 500 poor souls!

[ChozenWoan]

They do it all... I"m usually not hyped about the latest phones, but this thing is a beast. My cousin has one and some of the things he's shown me is lovely.

[KozmoOchez]

Zunes and Zune HD's are really good pieces of hardware, but i think they failed at advertising here...

Trying to get those "young and hip" facbook whores to buy the phone was almost a good idea, but most facebook whores haven't moved up to smart phones - trust me, im on my 4th year at University and most girls..err, facbook whores, are not even slightly interested in smart phones, just texting and taking pics, which they can already do on their not-so-smart phones...plus the Kins are ugly

[Conloles]

This phone was doomed to fail with the pricing it had, why get a feature phone when you can get a smart phone such as Evo 4G or iPhone for same price. WP7 will be much less of a failure imo as not only will it be a fully fledged product (unlike half assed Kin) it will have use for the data plans.

[HolyOrangeCows]

This just goes to show that Microsoft has no idea what people want.

They're just lucky to have monopolized the OS industry and made slight changes to and repackaged the same OS for over a decade. And to have released an HD console first, even though they didn't include half the features that the new one has, that everyone wanted soon after.

People don't want a NEW social network. They want a phone to connect to their FAMILIAR social networks (facebook).

[bramabull80]

they should have taken notes from Google on how to bite into Apple's market. You can not make a closed source product to compete with the Iphone. It needs to be open, like Android

[FreeFalling]

because it's horrendously ugly.

[kneon]

Most Android phones are quite ugly as well, yet people buy them for some reason. I only have some because i need them for work, but I'd never buy one. I have much nicer Windows Mobile 6.x phones.

[blind-reaper]

who is next Microsoft's Kin-etic... just kidding I think Kinetic will do alright.

[HolaTarola]

You can see Kinect is going to fail when 90% of the people call the product KINETIC instead of KINECT.

[AAACE5]

I wanted to like that phone, but my common sense kicked in and I just ignored it! It's clear that they don't know people! I guess they thought it would be a good idea to have peoples pictures splattered all over the internet. They really did fool themselves into thinking that people are facebook crazy!

People take a lot of pictures of stuff they want to keep private. And a phone that is built around uploading photos to the internet is a bit disturbing. Plus, you never know if anyone hacked into your file or if your personal info is being taken away as well!

MS really F'ed this one up! I wonder if this is part of the reason they made moves with the heads of their devices division.

[ImmortalLegend]

The N4G fanboys will go ape shit!

[DecoyOctopus]

they should kill KINect while they're at it lol

[DevastationEve]

...it's just that there wasn't really any reason to own it. Google's Android basically already took that long and uncertain road towards mainstream and frankly I'm not sure consumers are ready to do it all over again and wait for another device to hit its stride. And of course Kin is more than just Windows Mobile, it's a phone built for quite a specific audience.

An audience who breathes one of two words right now, Android or iPhone.

[fear88]

First the Courier and now the Kin?

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division might bite the dust by the end of this year with news like this.

Which means Xbox brand may be up in the air entirely.

[Why o why]

what the ef is 'Kin' is it like a wannabe blackberry or something...damn that musta cost em

flustercluck...not seen that term before...yeah i know the original

[SixZeroFour]

barely anything is known about it, but i believe it was targeted the teens, cause of its social media, and being able to all those social sites like facebook, myspace and twitter

i was honestly confused if it was even a phone

[sikbeta]

@Why o why

Man You Really Know... teach me :P

@MrA

Thanks for the info, you know if this "thing" was already out or anything more... substantial cos Being Totally Honest, Never Heard of it.....

[lightningsax]

It was a low-tech phone that was directed solely toward social networking, and the most salient feature of the phone was that it was short and fat. News outlets actually thought that short-fat phones, starting with Kin, might be a trend that breaks up the Droid and iPhone market. Sounds like a great marketing idea to teens, until MS found out that teens are totally fine running social networking from Android, iOS, and BlackBerry systems. Oh, Microsoft. That was a good one.

[jack_burt0n]

unbelievable.

[Nitrowolf2]

Never heard of it
but they did explain that only 500 were sold so

[alphakennybody]

lol! remember those cheesy commercial from GTTV E3 special?

[Christopher]

Yup. And tons of commercials on Hulu as well.

[ChozenWoan]

I saw the hulu ones and thought that it was all about just a new facebook wanna be site.

[KeenanTheSavage]

damn.....

[Hyrius]

Next : Kinect.

[karl]

project Kin?

[00]

Was this some kind of secret project or something. this is the first time I've even heard about this thing.

[silkrevolver]

Almost every review of it was scathing.

[BubbleSystemSuck]

what is Kin?
Kinect?

[Obama]

If it fails to capture the casual fanbase, MS will kill it too. MS is scary.

[RageAgainstTheMShine]

Things could get pretty ugly in the next few months.

[sikbeta]

I was thinking about that when I saw the Title and I went like WTF!? but it seems like is was a cellphone

"The major reason? Sales. Microsoft never confirmed (or denied) that only 500 Kins were sold [ http://www.businessinsider.... but it's clear that the response has been completely underwhelming. Otherwise, why kill a project that was in development for years after [ http://gizmodo.com/5306235/... just a few weeks? (And cost millions.)"

[JoePesci]

This thing was marketed up the a-hole too. Feels like I couldn't go anywhere without seeing some stupid kin advertisement.

They even had like a 5-minute spot on it before the trailers of the last movie I saw.

Kin down... Kin-ect will be next. Bwahahaha...

[R2D2]

and why is he/she so important that N4G has to have an article about MS killing them - plus is'nt it crime to kill some one in America.

The picture of them on the cell phone does not help - looks like MS threw acid on them.

[Tarmgar]

You guys never saw the commercials? Seriously? I saw them EVERYWHERE! Well....at least 2. One commercial was 2 girls sitting on a couch and the one with the kin found out some dude was having a concert in a park and she alerted all her friends with the kin on all her social networking sites all at once. Then the other one I could think of was the dude that wanted to meet all the people in his "social circle" and he was currently with his ex girlfriend or something. But, anyway, those commercials didn't want me want the product since it does basically nothing.

[Da One]

Phone just looks horribly uninteresting

[JasonXE]

all i remember is quest love. I never heard of his music nor do i think he exists.

[Briefcase Joe]

He's the drummer for The Roots.

[Da One]

how could you have not heard of The Roots or ?uestlove...

:(

Well I actually understand why.

[Sony Fiend]

WOW !!! they named a fail product 'Kin' and the eggheads over at MS couldn't come up with a better name for Natal than KINect ?

Kinect is doomed to fail as well.

Why do they like this word Kin so much ?

Stop making hardware MS, you suck @ it !

[oohWii]

Do you know how many Sony Ericson phones have been put to rest by Sony, and just this about it, they are "SUPPOSE" to be a hardware manufacturer.

When was the last time the top phone on the market was made by Sony?

So, while you chanting Sony's hymms "SONY FIEND" perhaps you should sniff for the other elephant in the room. He's about to step on you blind man.

[Tricksy]

Sony phones are niche; relying on their cameras which are usually better then the competition. Sony knows it and I am sure their business department takes this into account. You have no idea whether Sonys department in charge of their phones is profitable so- shush

[SupaGamer]

They're still a very successful company but all these little failures are beginning to add up.

[fishd]

500?!

Are you sh1tting me?

[beardpapa]

sucks for the 500 people who have it.

[hoops]

It never should have launched. It was a gimped Samrt Phone with expensive data plans.

[whizyup]

It failed to kinect with its kin.

The problem was this phone had out of this world data plans, and gimped social capabilites. No im client, at all. smh

[e-p-ayeaH]

Talking about embarasement xD but kinect is completly outta question OF COURSE! xD

[Quadrix]

People are finally smartening up about buying Microsoft products, it seems.

[Fulensenca]

Vista, Kin and probably Kinect ... M$ is throwing away huge ammount of money lately ...

[washingmachine]

just buy lookn at it you could tell it would flop,are they mental even to try and sell this ugly device.

[Cherchez La Ghost]

http://www.engadget.com/201...

The should have done that in the first place. Better now than never.

[nefertis]

damn that was quick, I hope M$ compensate those 500 customers with new replacements if they brake.

[Moentjers]

I heard they have plenty spare parts laying around /s

[dkgshiz]

It looked really lame anyways. Its probably the most boring and ugly phone on the market. It looks like its something from 2003.

[TH3 GAM3]

I thought the concept for the software was pretty cool but when I played with the phones. I couldn't believe how cheap the quality were.

[hoops]

The thought will be transposed to WINMO 7 phones like the Dell Lighting.
WINMO 7 looks amazing but the KIN phone was gimped from the start

[J-Smith]

kin-ect next LOL

[RobertGonz69]

Epic FAIL!!!

[redsquad]

In my ignorance, I've never even heard of it until reading this.

[Kyur4ThePain]

Well, I guess that is part of the reason it failed so hard...almost nobody knew about it.

[A change in the wind]

I know it`s mean of me, but I find this absolutely hilarious. Another abomination from the master of them, Microsoft.

[Kyur4ThePain]

Didn't MS say you could keep your pics and info online for as long as you want?
I wonder if they have to keep the service running forever now for just 500 or so customers.

[TANUKI]

Is this the phone gametrailers was advertising for, during the pre-E3 coverage on television?

I think Daniel Kayser and Amanda McKay mentioned it a few times.

[CrzyFooL]

The thing looked like useless, and had a very forgettable marketing campaign. I am not suprised.

[maka]

people when it comes to phone, theres to many to choose from, its not like when 360 came out ,and its the only HD console around, and people didnt have a choice but to buy it, and now because of thier ego now are defending it even though its garbage with 33% fail rate and not a complete gaming system.

[romaink]

I saw that coming since they announced that they weren't gonna make the Zune HD phone or use Tegra chips.

[Spenok]

500 sold, Worst selling phone is history xD lmao. Probably not, but worst selling from a big company like Microsoft. Oh well i guess.