R.I.P Kin: March 2010-June 2010

[screwdriver_clock]

Within a 6 week period of release, Microsoft has officially cancelled their KIN project. For those who weren't aware, Danger (the creators of the Sidekick) released two "feature phones" for the Social Network crowd that functioned well, but were crippled by a few glaring problems.

Problems:

* Price of the Phone: For a phone that's supposed to be for young teenagers or college students, yet the phones were priced horribly. Before rebates, the KIN One was $149.99USD, the KIN Two $199.99USD. Even with the $100USD rebates given out, they were still pricy compared to getting an iPhone 3g or Palm device.

* Carrier Plans: When the phone was in early development, Microsoft had made a deal with Verizon for a special data pricing plan which would provide a cheap internet phone for the target audience (talking a $10-15 a month data plan). Unfortunately due to a change of project manager which led to a delayed release time, the deal with Verizon fell through and KIN owners were required to pay for the $30 data plan that smartphones used. Considering that this wasn't a smartphone, this was a fatal move and in my opinion was what killed this phone.


Things that Rocked:

* Zune Mode: The phone worked as a Zune and took full advantage of the Zune UI and market place. Combined with a Zune pass, you had a 3g connecting media player that could stream audio wherever you went.

* KIN One: This one is more of a personal preference, but the "turtle" design of the KIN One was a fresh change from the generic "slider" and "candy bar" phones of today.

* KIN Studio: This was really one of the most awesome things I saw come out of this project, and I hope it gets ported over to WP7. It was like a social timeline that contained all of your text messages, photos, facebook and twitter updates, all of this in a panorama that you could easily navigate through from your phone or computer.

* The Spot: The concept was simple, and honestly wasn't too implemented, but had loads of potential. Drag your photos and contacts to the spot, and prepare mass text messaging for loads of friends.




Thankfully, the KIN team isn't being put to waste, and is being sent over to merge with the WP7 team to help to develop on the new OS (which from personal testing holds loads of promise). While the KIN is dying a very premature death, the lessons learned from this experimental phone will help push forward some possibly brilliant tech in the near future.

[screwdriver_clock]

will there be anymore sidekicks?

Bad news for you, but the Sidekick was just discontinued alongside it. Not by Microsoft since they just contracted Danger; Danger is looking at shutting up shop it looks like.