Explaining the death of KIN

Jul 8, 2010 08:50 GMT  ·  By

Whether true or not, rumor has it that only a small number of KIN devices were sold ever since Microsoft and Verizon made the new social phone available in the United States. It seems that only a number of around 500 handsets were shipped to users, and that this slow traction KIN registered on the market was the one to lead to its death.

Last week, Microsoft announced that KIN was set to be phased out. Launched in the US several weeks ago, the handsets were slated for release in Europe on Vodafone's network sometime this fall, but they won't make it over the ocean. And with the KIN team integrated into Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 division, it's crystal clear that the project's death certificate has been already signed.

KIN was expected to offer a new approach to the idea of being connected with social networking sites at all times, all straight from the mobile phone, but it seems that it failed to achieve its purpose. Set to open a road on which Windows Phone 7 would walk, the KIN phones came with rather high data plans attached to them, and some said that their value did not explained the cost they required. Thus, KIN has had a poor market performance, poor enough to make Microsoft employees say they are embarrassed by the product's launch, at least this is BusinessInsider states in a recent article.

We had a huge launch party on campus and I bet that party cost more than the amount of revenues we took in on the product. As an employee, I am embarrassed. As a shareholder, I am pissed. It's one thing to incubate products and bring them to a proof-of-concept to see what works, but it's something else to launch. I suspect we launched because we felt like we had to so we could save face because we were trying to build buzz, but overall - huge fail,” a Microsoft employee reportedly stated.

For the time being, we'll take these sayings with a grain of salt. The same applies to the rumored number of KIN handsets that have been sold, and which is said to be of exactly 503, according to Daring Fireball. However, based on the time it took Microsoft to consider KIN a lost cause and to drop any further plans for the project, chances are that this rumor would pan out in the end.

Update: According to a recent post on Pocketnow, the KIN Facebook app shows that a number of 8,810 KIN devices are currently connected. Moreover, an article on The New York Times states that Microsoft sold just under 10,000 units, in line with the figure on Facebook.