Ahh, alas a huge fail...
But not an EPIC FAIL
Posted on 07/09/2010 7:41:25 PM PDT by 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”.
Neither my kids or I have ever heard of this phone.
Maybe that’s part of the problem.
I got a flyer in the mail the other day, buy one, get two free.
I wonder if Clippy has one.
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
I think it is was designed for use by elementary students. Wonder why that didn’t take off?
KIN as related to whom?
What is a Kin?
Microsoft Bob, apparently.
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.
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.
It was Microsoft's rookie mistake of a cellphone. A whopping 503 sold in three months, then scrapped.
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.
OK. That was awkward...
Does that make the Kin the “next of Bob”?
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?
Maybe they can give them away for signing up to Facebook. They'll make it up on volume, lol.
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.
Ahh, alas a huge fail...
But not an EPIC FAIL
Such an improvement!
You can’t “rip off” a licensee unless you’re the licensor, Cold Heat.
Quick, somebody send the Bamster some Kin. He needs a few friends.
The ripped of the programming and tech. My guess is they stole it in China.
In a manner of speaking, yes. Very clever! They're "Bobbing" for Apple?
He discovered Bridge and realized that there was something more fulfilling than computers.
People just got sick of their $#!+ and are bailing now that there are valid alternatives?
Never heard of it until now.
And those ads are psychotic and creepy beyond words.
No wonder this thing bombed. That’s what every girl wants.... to come face to face with all her cyberstalkers.
Y I K E S !!
Nice pic, but I’ll actually say something nice about former President Carter. This pic and caption does him a dis-service in associating him with obama in any way. obama is the worst President ever. Former President Carter couldn’t hold a candle to obama, not even in the same league. And yes, I’m old enough to remember waiting in line for gas during the “energy crisis.”
I don't think the girls were in on the focus groups. My, my ... when geek chic goes awry.
Microsoft Kin - the Obama of smartphones
Obama - the vuvuzela of ostensible world leaders.
Wow. That’s really disturbing. I wonder how much MS paid their ad agency to come up with this? Hope the account manager loses his job.
I first saw this phone on Engadget.com, and just by the look of it, I had a feeling it would flop. I had no idea it would flop so spectacularly, though...
It's like they just can't let go of a certain stereotype of their target market, which apparently is leftover Seattle grunge types who really, really loved the movie Clerks.
It's some sort of myopia borne of proximity to Seattle, I suppose.
I found it interesting that you only mentioned Apple, when NTP is also suing Google, Motorola, LG, HTC and Microsoft. None of them are accused of stealing stuff from RIM, RIM was the first one that got sued by NTP. FWIW, Its critics have said that NTP has consistently inflated the importance of its innovations and that it is the very model of a patent troll, a company that produces no product or service other than licensing demands and lawsuits.(from the NYTimes article.)
The lawsuit between RIM and NTP was settled in 2006. NTP produces nothing but lawsuits. It was founded by a programmer and a lawyer. The programmer died and the lawyer sues people.
The other companies were aware of the lawsuit, and there's a good chance that they designed their email systems to avoid the patents claimed by NTP.
If you enjoy Epic Fail, you need look no further than the odd forays into hardware from Microsoft. They are legion.
I agree. I think it was a flop, but the only way a national roll out like that only sells 500 phones is if they told the salespeople to slap anyone who tried to buy it.
The only thing I know about this stupid thing is that some schmuck was going around to see all his social networking friends including his irritated looking ex-girlfriend. I still don’t know what that was supposed to mean. And something about updating all your friends on like Facebook or something. Can’t you do that from a regular cellphone anyway? who wants to spend hundreds on a phone to do what you could do before?
Well, I just read the headline on my news reader and I did say a bunch. Then I posted the relevant article from cnet.
RIM more or less was forced to buy a license to distribute, however it cost them 613 million bucks. With that suit as precedent, the lawyer should have no problems for the rest of his life when he nails Apple and Google. As to the MS phone, it's likely this had something to do with closing it down.
Why buy a smart phone at all when you have all that on your computer. Why buy a I-pad?
Why buy bottled imported water for that matter or the Chinese colorful junk at every store.
I gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago.
You know, like the AMC Pacer or the Flowbee, both of which wildly outsold the Kin despite their oddity.
This illustrates the difference between decent marketing of a poor product on the one hand, and "what the heck were they thinking" marketing of a poor product on the other.
Oh, please.
Well, slap 'em now or slap 'em when they call MS tech support, six of one, a half dozen of the other.
A company the size and power of Microsoft with more than 30 billion in cash on hand would not do this unless the phone was a whim or just a test to see if the tech would cause any interest.
They have more prototype stuff in their basement then Apple ever contemplated, but they are gun-shy and lack Apple's gutsy marketing ploys.
If I were them, I would set up a marketing arm of the company separate from the main business, and just become a majority stockholder. Hire the best talent in marketing and sell crap to willing buyers and tell them it's great because so and so made it.
This sort of marketing is done everyday and the companies come and go but make millions for themselves and totally screw the shareholders when they collapse.
MS could have done this years ago, but it is not in them.
I wonder if they still own that big stake in Apple. Apple was on their knees after their little computer sort of died, and they needed a investor. Guess who did them a favor?
Don't worry about Microsoft. They have made plenty of money selling stuff, but they stayed away from the limelight.
Every now and then they play with a idea, and if they ever land on one that's hot, they will market it. But most people will never connect the dots as to just how it happened.
They are due for another one, and I expect something to come up within a year.
Meanwhile, Apple moves a billion dollars worth of iPads in the same time period.
“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.”
No, that was the other guy.
Steve Jobs was the one Xerox PARC unwittingly gave a multi trillion dollar idea to, despite the best efforts of the one person, a secretary, who saw what was about to happen if he walked thru that fateful door.
Gates was the one who bought an operating system for $20,000 and turned it into $80,000,000,000 for himself.
But, but, but ... it's just a giant iPhone! It doesn't have a keyboard! No stylus! No USB ports! They don't allow porn! Aaaiiieeee!!!
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