Internal Videos Show Microsoft Knew Kin Phones May Flop

[exfileme]

Testers complained about the Kin phones long before they were shipped off to store shelves.

Internal Videos Show Microsoft Knew Kin Phones May Flop : Read more

 

[myromance123]

Wow, Microsoft must be swimming in cash to be able to manufacture two different phone lines and remove them only 48 days after. No wonder they can stay on top, they can just keep throwing things into the sea until the fish bite it. I bet there are W8 videos as well, but we'll probably never see them.

 

[DjEaZy]

... and after a short time the videos come out, that confirms, that windows ex-metro UI on desktop is crap...

 

[halcyon]

Kin phones? I'd be embarrassed to admit it to anyone if I'd bought one.

 

[friskiest]

Its the Kin- slow, small and short lived,. no need to beat a dead horse.

With MS' pile of cash,. they could afford to lose some millions if not billions from the mobile market, even now, We still can't tell if Windows Phone would end up successful.

So what matters right now is Windows 8- as this is where they get most of their profit.

 

[kellybean]

Will be reading a story about Windows 8 similar to this in the future?

 

[seinfeld]

this seemed like a sales focus group. can anyone identify the voices or people in it?

 

[SteelCity1981]

did they also know about issues with Windows 8 phones and Windows 8 being dissapointing too?

 

[sykozis]

Few inaccuracies in the article....as usual....

Kin was NEVER a smartphone. It was marketed as a multimedia phone from day 1.

Verizon didn't "return the unsold units back to Microsoft".... They warehoused them, then months later had MS disable the social networking features and sold off the remaining stock to consumers.

No calendar? My KinTwo does in fact have a calendar app built in. My KinTwo is also quite responsive.

Contact lists can only be copied by Verizon store employees? Damn....don't tell my HTC Trophy that... I used Windows Live Mail to copy contacts from my KinTwo to my HTC Trophy and my former Samsung Transform Ultra. Can also use MS Exchange if you got a copy of the software.

Also, according to research done by Verizon, sales of the KinOne and KinTwo were poor due to the $30 "smartphone" data package being required for a "multimedia" phone. I guess Verizon customers lied in that survey....

 

[wemakeourfuture]

[citation][nom]sykozis[/nom]Few inaccuracies in the article....as usual....Kin was NEVER a smartphone. It was marketed as a multimedia phone from day 1.Verizon didn't "return the unsold units back to Microsoft".... They warehoused them, then months later had MS disable the social networking features and sold off the remaining stock to consumers.No calendar? My KinTwo does in fact have a calendar app built in. My KinTwo is also quite responsive.Contact lists can only be copied by Verizon store employees? Damn....don't tell my HTC Trophy that... I used Windows Live Mail to copy contacts from my KinTwo to my HTC Trophy and my former Samsung Transform Ultra. Can also use MS Exchange if you got a copy of the software.Also, according to research done by Verizon, sales of the KinOne and KinTwo were poor due to the $30 "smartphone" data package being required for a "multimedia" phone. I guess Verizon customers lied in that survey....[/citation]

You get a down vote for owning a Kin. Please don't tell me you also bought a Zune.

 

[dudenucom]

I had one...why? Because its a phone with wifi, ability to send/receive email, browse the internet, 8gb of storage, and a zune music player "feature phone" and not a "smartphione" from verizon. Could use this without the 40 dollar data plan that I did not want to pay for. So when people compare this to "smartphone", they have no idea what they are talking about. Compare this to "feature phones" and this blows EVERYTHING out of the water!!!!

 

[bllue]

[citation][nom]myromance123[/nom]Wow, Microsoft must be swimming in cash to be able to manufacture two different phone lines and remove them only 48 days after. No wonder they can stay on top, they can just keep throwing things into the sea until the fish bite it. I bet there are W8 videos as well, but we'll probably never see them.[/citation]
Unlike another certain company out there who year after shells out the same product with minimal differences and next to zero innovation. Quite the risk takers MS are. Maybe some day they'll get a big bite.

 

[Guest]

Well I am sure that when they do find the windows 8 Metro/Modern videos, that It will most likely be blindfolded M$ programming VPs throwing darts randomly at marketing morons' post it notes suggestions stuck to the office wall, the first dart to hit paper wins! Not quality research, but it is the M$ way!

 

[wemakeourfuture]

[citation][nom]dudenucom[/nom]I had one...why? Because its a phone with wifi, ability to send/receive email, browse the internet, 8gb of storage, and a zune music player "feature phone" and not a "smartphione" from verizon. Could use this without the 40 dollar data plan that I did not want to pay for. So when people compare this to "smartphone", they have no idea what they are talking about. Compare this to "feature phones" and this blows EVERYTHING out of the water!!!![/citation]

It was such a terrible and crappy phone. It was beyond horrible, awful and crashed and burned to tech hell. It came out the same time as the iPhone and Galaxy S and was no where near as good.

Me and my colleagues all new this was one of the worst products to have a Microsoft label on it. Right when it came out we expected it to last a few months as it did.

It was a complete joke of a product.

WiFi, Internet, media player and you think it doesn't compete with smartphones? That's why Verizon relabelled it as a "feature phone" no one in their right mind wanted to buy this garbage. I can't believe there were any suckers who actually did.

 

[Darkerson]

[citation][nom]wemakeourfuture[/nom]You get a down vote for owning a Kin. Please don't tell me you also bought a Zune.[/citation]
And you got one for being a arrogant, judgemental prick.

 

[pjmelect]

Why do Microsoft bother to do pre production testing on their products if they ignore the results? The preview versions of Windows 8 and Vista had similar negative responses and they completely ignored the feedback. A smaller company would go bust if the managers behaved like this, but then Microsoft does have very deep pockets. With the current management in Microsoft I think that it would be a good time to sell their shares.

 

[jackt]

MS keepin his suicidal line, what they think ? if the phone has a funny shape we forget its so big?

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]wemakeourfuture[/nom]You get a down vote for owning a Kin. Please don't tell me you also bought a Zune.[/citation]
No, I bought a Creative Zen V Plus, which turned out to actually be worse than the Zune. Fortunately I got it on sale when the local Circuit City was starting it's "going out of business" sale.

[citation][nom]wemakeourfuture[/nom]It was such a terrible and crappy phone. It was beyond horrible, awful and crashed and burned to tech hell. It came out the same time as the iPhone and Galaxy S and was no where near as good.Me and my colleagues all new this was one of the worst products to have a Microsoft label on it. Right when it came out we expected it to last a few months as it did.It was a complete joke of a product.WiFi, Internet, media player and you think it doesn't compete with smartphones? That's why Verizon relabelled it as a "feature phone" no one in their right mind wanted to buy this garbage. I can't believe there were any suckers who actually did.[/citation]
The Kin line was never advertised as a "Smartphone". From day 1, Verizon and Microsoft advertised it as a "Multimedia" phone. It was never intended to compete with the iPhone or Android based phones. It was intended to compete with phones such as the LG Chocolate line of phones, which were also "Multimedia" phones. For the market segment it was designed for, and advertised as, it was the most advanced phone ever released. Sadly, it's still the most advanced "multimedia" phone ever released. When it was re-released later, it was marketed as a "feature phone" because carriers dropped the "multimedia" phone designation due to "feature phones" picking up multimedia functions.

 

[Arls]

You get a down vote for owning a Kin. Please don't tell me you also bought a Zune.

WTF is exactly wrong with a Zune? I'm just curious, I don't own one but my gf does and I like it. Big screen, easy to use. The only con imo is the lack of a touch screen. But really when it comes to mp3 players who cares?

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]Arls[/nom]WTF is exactly wrong with a Zune? I'm just curious, I don't own one but my gf does and I like it. Big screen, easy to use. The only con imo is the lack of a touch screen. But really when it comes to mp3 players who cares?[/citation]
The only problem with Zune....is the Zune software....