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: