Microsoft to kill off Kin messaging phones - Yahoo! News: "In a stunningly swift about-face, Microsoft has reportedly decided to stick a fork in its youth-oriented Kin messaging phones, not even two months after the handsets went on sale and just two days after Verizon slashed prices on the devices.Microsoft will cease development on the phones, instead focusing its energies on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets, according to CNET's Ina Fried, who adds that Microsoft has nixed the Kin's planned debut in Europe.
In a statement to CNET, Microsoft confirmed that the development team behind the Kin will be folded into the Windows Phone 7 group. That said, Microsoft will 'continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones.'
Rumors have been swirling for weeks that the Kin One and Kin Two, a pair of QWERTY slider phones aimed at young, social-networking-savvy mobile users, had seen disastrously low sales, with some estimates as low as a mere 500 units.
Microsoft hasn't given out precise sales figures for the two Kins, but on Monday, Verizon Wireless slashed the two-year contract price of the formerly $99 Kin Two in half, while the Kin One saw a 40 percent price cut, to just $29 with service.
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1 comment:
Jeez, Microsoft has REALLY lost its way (and its edge). This whole "Kin" thing was not well-thoughtout nor implemented well. The design is too funky and clumsy for the teen market it was seemingly going after. They need to watch Apple; they are incredible at building buzz. EVERYTHING works for them, even when the iPhone 4G don't work well, they get LOTS of press about it and it just keeps rolling along.
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