“But last week, less than two months after the Kins arrived in stores, Microsoft said it would kill the products,” Vance reports. “The Kins’ flop adds to a long list of products — from watches to music players — that have plagued Microsoft’s consumer division, while its business group has suffered as well through less-than-successful offerings like Windows Vista and Windows for tablet computers.”
Vance reports, “In particular, the Kin debacle is a reflection of Microsoft’s struggle to deliver what the younger generation of technology-obsessed consumers wants. From hand-held products to business software, Microsoft seems behind the times… The list of Microsoft’s consumer product slip-ups grows each year. Its line of intelligent watches — come and gone — often ends up as the butt of jokes, as do its tablet PC software products, the poor-selling Windows Vista operating system and the ignored Zune music player. The company also canceled its Courier tablet PC project shortly after the Apple iPad tablet went into stores.
Full article here.
Well, like Ford, maybe they’ll come back in a few decades. Until then…
All MS had to do was ask a teen if they would buy a phone like that if he could get an iPhone for $100 more…MS are just a bunch of greedy morons.
All these writers using the same phrase: “young and hip.” I’ve been using Apple products for so long that I’m now old and in need of a young hip!
It must be tough toppling off.
Clearly they’re the Raytheon of the modern age, but you gotta feel for them a little. Part their prime, no clue how to get it back.
Lot of lowered heads passing in the halls. Up in Redmond.
This article is written in a tone that assumes Microsoft EVER had a worthwhile product. That’s being awful generous. Windows has ALWAYS been a PIG. In the middle (dark) ages of computing ignorant people flocked to it because…IT WAS CHEAP. Now the industry and many followers have woken up and realize the LAST thing they want is Microsoft (anything) inside.
It’s no longer Apple vs. Microsoft, it’s now Apple vs. Google. Although in my opinion, Google’s products will NEVER reach the high quality of Apple’s products.
Why is Microsoft still selling (or at least offering) the Zune?
MS is just pretending to “create” desirable products. It’s like they are sleepwalking! This company is the epitome of the rampant corporate welfare in the US. They gouged customers for years and now provide fake employment!
Sounds as though M$ should fire everyone except their OS, Word and Exchange groups. Please keep Ballmer!
@ The_Steve:
What else are they going to fill up their crappy, carbon-copied stores with, other than their crappy, carbon-copied music players?
That headline is a horrible insult to the Edsel, the Ford Motor Company, the Ford family, the memory of Edsel Ford, and probably a few other things Ford-related that I’m forgetting.
The problem with Microsoft is that they have no patience and no stamina to continue develop promising products, and to improve them. The Smart Watch, the Pocket PC platform, the Tablet PC, the Microsoft Reader, etc, etc, etc, all *could* have been further developed into solid, long-lasting consumer platforms. But it’s Microsoft’s corporate culture to quickly lose interest after such a release, and to leave their products buggy and in a half-developed state. The Zune is the only exception, but it came so late after the iPod that it was a joke out of the starting gate.
And who comes up with the names of these things, anyway? How inanely clueless can a company be?
Rob Enderle is saying that the death of Kin has now got Microsoft so focussed that it will destroy Apple.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-killing-the-kin-could-destroy-apple/
Is that guy batshit insane or what?
Microsoft’s strategy is to strategize… but they are forgetting why by the time the product reaches the marketplace.
Well, perhaps Microsoft meant to launch Kin 2 years ago, that might have helped, and it seems that the data plan requirement killed it. Should have been a $50 everything plan.
Kin was destined to fail, by design. How could Microsoft have an internal Window CE -based mobile phone that was seeing a successful launch competing against the Windows Phone 7 partner phones when that separate platform was supposed to launch a few months later? That would be unacceptable…
If Microsoft actually had any real “focus” and leadership discipline, they would have admitted that acquiring Danger (who made the somewhat successful Sidekick phones) and the subsequent “Project Pink” effort were costly mistakes, a waste of time, effort, and money. It should have been cancelled two years ago. Or, Microsoft should have let the Danger team continue independently with their established Sidekick platform and release new phones two years ago, instead of trying to redo everything based on Windows CE. Two years ago, it may have made a difference and there would not have been an overlap with Windows Phone 7 (at least not immediately).
Ultimately, due to internal corporate politics, they had to release something for their investment, so Kin was targeted at “young people.” It was an inevitable conclusion (product launch followed by quick cancellation). Kin had to launch before Windows Phone 7 and be out of the way and forgotten.
Ford.
F. O. R. D.
Fix Often, Repair Daily.
but wait, there’re more; http://www.all-acronyms.com/FORD)
Kinda like everything from Microsoft.
“Microsoft seems behind the times…”
Priceless… the New York Slimes must be hiring from Google lately.
microsh*t needs to focus on its core business. This splatter gun approach is clearly not working. They play catch up way too much only to find by the time they are getting closer to the original goal, the goal posts are now accelerating away even faster. Talk about behind the curve in some respects. I don’t think they are quite getting the paradigm shift that is underway: ubicomp is getting closer and rather reliving past delusions of trying to control everything, they should be working out ways to really capitalize on it. I wonder how many microsh*t apps run on the iphone…easy question: none! Idiots. Instead of trying to control the platform, they need to work on the more important thing: applications that people want. The OS is becoming increasingly lost in the background. Highly functional, robust, cheap apps are at the forefront of the cloud. Office is still a vast cash cow and windows on the desktop will be around for many years yet, but microsh*t are losing ground in the real future game: ubicomp. They seem to think it’s still 1995.
FORD= found on rubbish dumps
The company also canceled its Courier tablet PC project shortly after … it was exposed as a fraud.
There, I fixed it for you.
Advertising a 3D rendering of some gimmik without any hope of being able to produce it in the next 5 years, is NOT a project, but a fraud.
Bill named his phones after his kids. And Steve too……
Everybody knows Fords suck and Chevys rule.
@brulek
This is no catching up for Microslut. Ever.
Microsoft’s problem is that the company is run by morons. Simple.