Verizon Fully Kills the Kin

 

Nobody can say that they're particularly surprised about this one. As Verizon has just confirmed that they are no longer going to sell both Kin phones and they are going to be returning them back to Microsoft.Who themselves just threw in the towel on the Kin project at the end of last month. (Read here) We are told that all existing Kin's will work as Microsoft is keeping the back-end services running. But as so few Kin's were sold, I wonder how long this will continue to happen.

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Source Engadget 

Microsoft Kills Kin!

 

So just after 6 weeks after launch, Microsoft has thrown in the towel on the Kin project. So there will only be a Windows Phone 7 and no separate Kin product anymore as Andy Lees is moving the entire Kin into the core Windows Phone 7 team.

So why kill the Kin so soon? Well, Microsoft never confirmed confirmed (or denied) that only 500 Kins were ever sold or they've sold so few at launch that they are killing the mult-million dollar project which took years to develop. 

Another question, why did it fail? Simple, price. Verizon priced it as a smartphone, even though it clearly wasn't. And after cutting the one-off price dramatically, it didn't make the high cost of the monthly plan any sweeter. 

Here is Microsoft's official statement on the matter:

"We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."

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Source Gizmodo