Verizon resurrecting the Microsoft Kin?

Emil

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Staff

The Microsoft Kin was one of the biggest failures in the mobile industry this year, given that it was pulled after only three months on the market. Therefore, we were quite surprised to see the Kin One and the Kin Two come back to Verizon's inventory, according to a leaked Verizon Q4 road map posted by PPCGeeks.

The two Kin feature phones will be coming without a data plan. Both originally required smartphone-like data plans which were arguably too steep for phones aimed primarily at teenagers. The included Zune Pass will reportedly work over Wi-Fi even if you're not signed up for a proper data plan, but features such as unlimited photo uploads and Loop won't be available, according to Engadget. It's good to hear that Verizon has finally realized that a required $80 to 100 per month data plan is too much for a feature phone.

While all of this is definitely an improvement, we can't help but wonder if the Kin comeback is bound to fail as well. If you really want a Microsoft phone, why not just go with one of the many available Windows Phones? It's not as if teenagers don't use smartphones! Is Verizon really hoping to give the Kin a second chance, or does it just want to clear its inventory?

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I don't think it's a comeback they are aiming for. I think it's more along the lines of limping on your broken leg to try to finish a race. There's a whole lot of Kin phones just sitting gathering dust in a warehouse, might as well try to find some suckers.. errr, customers... to get back at least a small amount from the financial black hole the Kin created when it imploded.
 
They're witches! Buuuuuuuuurn them!

These phones are evil! They must be put down. They're evil for 2 reasons: they're ugly as sin; they've come back from the dead after being put in the grave where they belong!
 
I see a warehouse, i see dead phones, some are missing buttons, antennae, some have cracks on their screens. Some weird green gas is being pumped into that warehouse. I see some trembelling; than one phone moves an inch, then two inches, then another one moves, soon there's a loud storm of plastic scraching against plastic. I see the title: "THE RETURN OF THE UNSOLD KINS". They move further and further, louder and louder. Some of them get to a door and start banging on it harder and harder. Suddenly the door breaks and a sea of phones pours out of the opening and the screen goes black. I see a name: "Robert Rodriguez".
 
Uhm... I dont know the deal of how bad this phones has been? Have YOU ever had one?

Probably it was too much of a marketting boom, along with too expensive required data plans, maybe now that they came into real range of real people they might not be that bad after all, who knows.
 
Yeah, they are probably just trying to get rid of old stock.

And ever since the iPhone came out, all my favourite tech sites spend way too much time covering mobiles I swear. Get back to the PC stuff :p
 
Perhaps Microsoft will bring Windows Phone 7 to them? They meet the hardware specs from my understanding. If not that maybe a significant update to the OS. It could be Ballmer trying to clean-up the bad part of Microsoft's recent mobile reputation :p
 
Kibaruk said:
Uhm... I dont know the deal of how bad this phones has been? Have YOU ever had one?

Probably it was too much of a marketting boom, along with too expensive required data plans, maybe now that they came into real range of real people they might not be that bad after all, who knows.

I played around with one for a while (friend works for Microsoft, they were giving them out to some employees to encourage familiarization with the product). And I was rather appalled. There were a multitude of problems with the design from the start. The major issue was completely missing the mark regarding the technical sophistication of their target market. They were trying to push a dumbed-down limited capability phone onto a very tech savvy tweens-teens-20somethings crowd. I guess some rocket scientist thought "hey, it's got social networking, that's all they'll want" and they started producing the things. When they hit the shelves at Verizon, they had incomprehensibly expensive data plans, lacked most of the features people wanted, and bombed miserably. Why would someone want a Kin when they could get a Blackberry or Android that did everything the Kin did and more, yet cost less per month? It was one of the biggest and most ridiculous targeted marketing fiascos I can recall in recent times.

The only way these pigs will see a consumer's hands is if they are priced waaaay down and given a massively discounted data plan.
 
But alas, they could not make it to the door because they ran a Microsoft OS and the world was saved.

The End.
 
The company is just trying to clear some inventory and maybe generate some revenue in the process. Like most telecom companies, Verizon likely doesn't make money on the phones but rather on their clients' usage of data and other services. Who knows ? they might actually sell some units. There's a saying that goes " one man's trash is another man's treasure ". Might actually apply to this case.
 
@Vrmithrax: Thats the first real comment i've read here in a long long time. Thank you! =)
 
I really do hpe that microsoft will make it this time. It must e realy embarassing to see your product just go out there and fail like that. I think the Kin has potential in the aimed market, but its the prices that have to be controlled in order to gain success. If Microsoft went bankrupt, who on earth will ther ebe to challenge Mac! I hope it works out his time.
 
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