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Thoughts on the death of Microsoft… KIN, I mean.

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Oh Microsoft, what are you doing with yourself??

There was a vision in KIN that not many tech pundits saw (as I noted in a previous blog post) but — having personally checked out KIN’s Facebook page on a semi-regular basis — there was genuine excitement for the phone from its niche audience. The KIN phone was an oddity in light of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 but only because Microsoft made it so, especially if we are to believe Engadget’s Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story followup article posted today.

(Engadget’s article seems inline with a New York Times op-ed article by former Microsoft VP Dick Brass regarding Microsoft’s Creative Destruction published in February.)

The cancellation of the KIN so quickly after market release seems to spell trouble for Windows Phone 7 for three main reasons:

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Microsoft KIN feature phones have potential to dominate teen market

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Microsoft held a press conference today to unveil two new phones formerly only known under the codename “Project Pink”.

The KIN ONE is a pebble-shaped phone with a full qwerty slide-out keyboard and touch screen; the KIN TWO is more like typical slideouts on the market today and also has a touch screen.

KIN model comparision

What makes KIN phones special is that Microsoft spent a lot of time thoughtfully designing the user interface from the ground up for the social media addict. The layout is strikingly similar to Microsoft’s yet-to-be-released Windows Phone 7 Series and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR layer for Android phones.

Based on my skimming of blogs and Twitter posts, reactions to KIN have been fairly polar — either you love it or you hate it. And maybe this is an unfair sweeping assumption but it seems that most of the haters are spec-heavy, gadget-lusting men. Yes, Engadget and Gizmodo commenters, I’m talking about you.

Personally, I think KIN has the potential to dramatically turn around the perception of Microsoft as a lumbering beast in the mobile world. And all while gaining the key audience group most needed at the moment to keep business running in the future: teenager girls.

And why do I say this?

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