MICROSOFT KIN BIGGEST FLOP EVER - Only 503 KIN’s sold in under 3 months

Sim Basics ^ | July 8, 2010

[RegulatorCountry]

One member of staff at Microsoft working on the KIN project said:

“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”.

[RegulatorCountry]

No antenna gripes from the 503 units sold that I'm aware, lol.

[Marie]

Neither my kids or I have ever heard of this phone.

Maybe that’s part of the problem.

[razorback-bert]

I got a flyer in the mail the other day, buy one, get two free.

[tacticalogic]

I wonder if Clippy has one.

[RegulatorCountry]

Well, it wasn’t due to a lack of money spent on advertising the thing. The campaign has been widely panned as “creepy.”

http://vodpod.com/watch/3419318-microsoft-kin-launch-ad-campaign

Here are a couple YouTube vids, the first one is especially weird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCakBlWTwJK0

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAHD5m4tiJ4o

[GAGOP]

I think it is was designed for use by elementary students. Wonder why that didn’t take off?

[SkyDancer]

KIN as related to whom?

[RegulatorCountry]

But, but, but ... it's a social networking cellphone. You can communicate with your friends on Facebook, lol.

[omega4179]

What is a Kin?

[RegulatorCountry]

KIN as related to whom?

Microsoft Bob, apparently.

[mnehring]

I had a chance to see the KIN system early on and it was pretty brilliant in the way it operated with sites like Facebook. Very clean, very efficient. It seemed to come at the wrong time. Not my bag of a mobile system (I like the Android OS) but it had several brilliant components.

[kingu]

Let's see, number of Verizon stores in the United States... I'd take a guess that the number is somewhere near 4,000. So only 1 in 8 stores even had a Kin, if the sales amount was only 503. Or perhaps Microsoft provided free Kins to every store, then provided all the inventory for free, and would get paid only for phones that were sold...

Somehow, I think the 503 unit number that's floating around is completely bogus. But if it is a real number, if Microsoft did something unheard of in the cellular industry and did a 100% consignment inventory, only getting paid for units sold and activated, then that person should be served up as a delicious treat to stockholders at the next annual meeting.

[RegulatorCountry]

What is a Kin?

It was Microsoft's rookie mistake of a cellphone. A whopping 503 sold in three months, then scrapped.

[RegulatorCountry]

I wonder if Clippy has one.

Ah, Clippy. The lone survivor of Microsoft Bob. I just love the retro look and feel of a cheesy animated GIF. It's like midcentury modern, but on a PC.

[Marie]

OK. That was awkward...

[mikrofon]

Does that make the Kin the “next of Bob”?

[SamAdams76]

Whatever happened to Bill Gates? Remember the nerdy guy with the glasses that used to shake his legs all the time? Whatever happened to Bill Gates? A bundle of nervous energy who did not know how to dress properly. A guy who went to the Xerox place out in Palo Alto or some such place and stole the idea for the mouse and a graphical interface system. Yeah, that guy.

Whatever happened to Bill Gates? Remember he was one of the richest guys in the world and everybody trembled at how he was about to take over the entire world and make slaves of us all? Whatever happened to that notion?

Microsoft. Big company. Lots of revenue. Dominant positon with respect to the OS. Unstoppable. Behemoth. Colossus. Whatever happened to Bill Gates?

Now we got this really weird guy running Microsoft. Steve Ballmer is his name. Check out the videos. This guy is weird. Even weirder than Bill Gates. What is going to happen to Microsoft in the years ahead?

Remember when Microsoft was going to rule the world? What happened?

[RegulatorCountry]

It seemed to come at the wrong time.

Maybe they can give them away for signing up to Facebook. They'll make it up on volume, lol.

[Cold Heat]

It was just a test.

I don't know what they learned from it. MS actually does have some innovations, and they kept this low profile to keep the vultures from ripping off their stuff, as per usual.

I find it interesting that Apple and a bunch of others are getting sued because they ripped off RIM (backberry)E-mail applications. RIM was the only one licensed to use it.

[mountn man]

so we could save face because we were trying to build buzz, but overall – huge fail”.

Ahh, alas a huge fail...

But not an EPIC FAIL