And so, after countless money spent on advertising and campaigning to make the Microsoft Kin a viable product, the venerable company is finally capitulating to the mass opinion. That is to say, Microsoft took a shot from left field and missed the mark, some say by a wide margin. Microsoft's goal of providing a small, light, modern, 'social phone' was a noble one, but ultimately its demise came in the form of time. It was simply too little, too late.
The Kin pushed a novel interface that is very media based, but really revolved around texting. It seemed to be targeted toward an audience that was wanting for something simpler than the current crop of super-smartphones, such as the iPhone, Blackberry Tour and Droid. The device was fine, though admittedly limited in features. Even so, it could have made for a good pocket companion for the elusive niche market that is 'intimidated' by smartphones.
But the trouble was in the details. By pricing the voice and data plan at similar rates to those of the more feature-rich smartphones, the Kin dealt itself its death blow. How can any consumer justify spending similar amounts of money on a device that does strictly less than another? On paper, there was simply no contest. And now we will never find out just how well it worked. Let's hope the Windows Phone 7 platform meets a friendlier fate.
—Yufeng Guo, Staff Writer
