Rumour-only 500 Kin phones sold

[Narmer]

They chose the wrong provider and ended up pricing themselves out of the market. Their previous provider for the Sidekick was T-Mobile. Should've stuck with them.

 

[zerocool84]

It's not horrible. It does things that many dumb phones don't but the pricing is ridiculous for that things when you can get a much better phone for the same price.

 

[thescreensavers]

^ exactly

I mean the price of the phones are good now 50 and 99. But the data plan is 30 bucks. They can just spend 50-100 more bucks and buy a smart phone that has all of that plus more and pay the same monthly.

Originally it was said there would be a special data plan for these phones but I guess that fell through.

And We all Know Ballmer is pissed off at this, he is not a dumb man and knows his product is not selling that well. Thanks to outrages data fee and the outrageous texting plans.

 

[Narmer]

^ exactly

I mean the price of the phones are good now 50 and 99. But the data plan is 30 bucks. They can just spend 50-100 more bucks and buy a smart phone that has all of that plus more and pay the same monthly.

Originally it was said there would be a special data plan for these phones but I guess that fell through.

And We all Know Ballmer is pissed off at this, he is not a dumb man and knows his product is not selling that well. Thanks to outrages data fee and the outrageous texting plans.

He's dumb for goinw with Verizon instead of T-Mobile or Sprint.

 

[thescreensavers]

VZW is the best network, why would he not go there? Again it was said during the unavailing of these phones that there would be some sort of cheaper data plan but it fell through and now these phones are useless.

 

[AstroManLuca]

VZW is the best network, why would he not go there?

Because Verizon is unwilling to compromise on plan structure.

 

[Narmer]

VZW is the best network, why would he not go there? Again it was said during the unavailing of these phones that there would be some sort of cheaper data plan but it fell through and now these phones are useless.

Who cares if it's the best network. He should've done his homework on his target audience, including what network they're on and how much they spend a month. This kin was supposed to replace the popular sidekick, which was on T-mobile. T-mobile is cheap. People forget that it is the price of the plan, not the phone, that can be a deterrent. If there was supposed to be a cheaper data rate with verizon, he should've made that a top priority.

 

[gsaldivar]

deleted

 

[RandomFool]

Kin was a neat idea with terrible pricing. That said, there doesn't appear to be any real facts behind this rumor. I don't doubt it's sold horribly but 500 seems kind excessively low.

 

[QueBert]

Kin was a neat idea with terrible pricing. That said, there doesn't appear to be any real facts behind this rumor. I don't doubt it's sold horribly but 500 seems kind excessively low.

It's expensive, it's slow as crap, oh and it's not an iPhone. This phone's target audience is only teens. I can't imagine an adult wanting one. And teens want iPhones, so they won't want a Kin. This phone is epic fail on every level. Meanwhile for whatever reason MS is dragging their feet at getting a WM7 phone out. While it will be semi popular, they're waiting far too long.

For some reason I see MS releasing a Kin II in a year or so, they got enough money to fail and fail again without worrying, it must be nice

 

[TheWart]

Well, I guess the rumor wasn't too far off base:

The Kin is dead

We're learning this afternoon that Microsoft's Kin line, for all practical purposes, is riding off into the sunset just a few short weeks after its release. Sources close to Microsoft tell us that Andy Lees has rolled Kin into the Windows Phone 7 team and has canceled the existing product's launch later this year in Europe on news that sales weren't as strong as expected.

At lease Microsoft was smart enough to see it wasn't working and cut its losses now rather than dragging it out.

 

[Sheep]

Wow.

Too early to call this the biggest consumer electronic flop ever? Even the Virtual Boys and Bobs of the world lasted longer...

 

[dwell]

Only 25 mobile strategies left at Microsoft now :awe:

 

[gsaldivar]

That's hilarious....

It looks like NVIDIA is feeling pretty dumb now for hitching their wagon to Microsoft's horse...

"...Microsoft's Kin One and Kin Two might not turn out to be the most auspicious devices for Tegra's debut in the smartphone arena, but NVIDIA seems to be learning from its mistakes. Admitting that the company committed too strongly to Microsoft with the first-gen iteration, Jen-Hsun Huang has now said that the second generation of Tegra will look to Android devices first and foremost...."

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/17/nvidia-puts-its-tegra-2-eggs-in-androids-basket-aims-to-topple/

ouch.

 

[zerocool84]

Well, I guess the rumor wasn't too far off base:

The Kin is dead



At lease Microsoft was smart enough to see it wasn't working and cut its losses now rather than dragging it out.

It was dead on launch. Really sucks as it could have been a decent seller as it did things other dumb phones didn't but they set the price out of reach of their target audience.

 

[Raduque]

So WP7 is going to have the "Studio" functionality? That's about the only cool/useful feature of the device.

Also, I guess, at least the Kin One, has quality issues, a co-worker has one and said she had to have it replaced 2 or 3 times now.

 

[oogabooga]

If the thing had a cheap data plan - they'd have had a hit. How much data could someone use just on myspace/facebook - introduce a cheap plan - appeal to the teen market (which I think was the original plan), and they could have built something

At full priced data plans, the cost of ownership was way to high and you'd have to be dumb to buy one. I still laugh at only 500 people though.

 

[gsaldivar]

A cheap data plan is a no-brainer from the consumer's point of view, especially when phones are easily modifiable and can be tethered, etc to maximize each dollar spent on a plan. At the end of the day Microsoft just wants people to buy their phone. It's the carriers that are the ones who stand to gain/lose the real money. They had to have been asking themselves... how many full-plan subscribers would we potentially lose by selling them this half-a-phone Kin device at a much cheaper rate? When smartphones are flying off the shelves quicker than the manufacturers can make them, does it make sense to start marketing plans at half price? I'm sure Verizon wants the Kin to die quickly...

 

[Pliablemoose]

Damn, talk about not understanding the cell phone market.

1.) Oddball form factor
2.) They thought parents wouldn't look at the monthly charges for data?
3.) Marketed to teens who want iPhones and Droids

WTF is that division smoking on their lunch breaks?

 

[theineffablebob]

As everybody already said, the Kin failed because the data plan was too high.

If anybody were to choose between a Kin or a Palm Pre Plus for $50 and the same priced plans, the Pre would be a no-brainer.

 

[QueBert]

I don't think the Kin would have been a success even on cheaper T-Mobile. A loooooot of time has passed since the Sidekick ruled the teen market. Kin was too little, too late. Not saying it would have flopped as badly. But on T-Mobile it would have seen Zune like success, which isn't flattering to say the least (I own a Zune HD) Windows 7 Mobile better come soon. I don't care how sweet it turns out, if they don't have a phone people can buy out by October they might as well give it up. Or be prepared to lose bucket loads of $$$ on a phone that won't catch up. I think regardless of how bad WM7 devices do, MS will stand behind them for the long haul though. If the Verizon iPhone rumors don't pan out I'd be willing to buy a WM7 phone if the specs were right.

 

[theeedude]

MS needs to throw in the towel on mobile OS side. The piece of the market they wanted to monetize is taken by free Android. I don't see MS creating a profitable business on phone OS side. MS needs to partner with Apple on Bing/App side. iOS + MS mobile Office apps can effectively attack RIM. iOS + Bing can more effectively target Android + Google.
Also, MS's low end is going to be under attack from Android/Chrome smartbooks and tablets. If MS lets Android get a foothold there, it's in serious trouble, Android will simply eat its way up as hardware capabilities improve. MS needs to be working on a lightweight version of Windows 7, and it needs to compile it to ARM and not let Android have a safe haven on that rapidly growing architecture.

 

[hanoverphist]

one of those articles speculated that MS wouldnt use vzw for their carrier on the wp7 phones (which i saw was a samsung in that one demo) and that they would be putting out gsm phones instead. that doesnt make sense to me, if they already had planned for a vzw release, those phones were already made as cdma wouldnt they? they are too close to their release to change something as drastic as their radio i would think. it would bum me out, ive been a winmo fan for a while, i was hoping to see a cool phone come out a month before my upgrade hits.

 

[TheWart]

one of those articles speculated that MS wouldnt use vzw for their carrier on the wp7 phones (which i saw was a samsung in that one demo) and that they would be putting out gsm phones instead. that doesnt make sense to me, if they already had planned for a vzw release, those phones were already made as cdma wouldnt they? they are too close to their release to change something as drastic as their radio i would think. it would bum me out, ive been a winmo fan for a while, i was hoping to see a cool phone come out a month before my upgrade hits.

Won't they be putting out CDMA and GSM phones? Seems like they would need everything they can get at this point, and it is not like they are actually building the phones. They are just licensing the OS out (and ensuring certain minimum hardware requirements are met iirc).

 

[ASTOCADDIDS]

i agree with micky, it wouldnt eally bother me, i have nothing to hide so why worry?