of kids want an iPad
The Nielsen Company presented a cadre of individuals with a list of nice, shiny gadgets and let them cross off anything and everything they'd like to buy in the next six months, and 31 percent of kids 6-12 picked the iPad as one of them.
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Death by suicide...
@icon808
Death before birth.
"What killed the Kin?"
The lack of intellect.
@icon808 All the puns...
@icon808 Their parents killed it.
@icon808
Windows 7, if I was the only one to answer seriously.
Lack of direction.
@icon808
In order for it to die, wouldn't it have had to live?
@icon808 An Hero?
@BlackedOut
Lack of sales.
@icon808 the Kin killed the Kin
@icon808 I actually think this is a bit of a shame. Wasn't really tailored for my demographic, but I thought it looked like a funky little phone, and I think the concept behind it was pretty solid.
@icon808
The Kin is Dead, Long live the Kin!
@Gibson
I did.
@tuatha
I'm pretty sure the whole Kin OS can be turnt into a WP7 app lol.
@icon808
Topolsky must be quite the Phil Collins fan. In the Air Tonight on the iPhone review, and this little note on the KIN.
@Gibson
On June 30, at 4:54, the Kin was pronounced dead on arrival to the Verizon store. Cause of death; pricing.
@icon808
Refurb iPhone 3G 8gig. 49$
@icon808
It's very, very simple. The contracts prices are what killed these phones.
They were cute in concept and were right up the alley of the target demographic. One thing they didn't realize is that this same demographic likely is not paying for their own phone's monthly bill; likely footed by parentals. So, parents saw the phone's pricing and said, "No thank you."
It's as simple as that.
@icon808
Two things:
1) bad market research
2) the fact that no teenagers thinks that Microsoft is a brand they identify with. If apple had released it, it'd probably done ok.
@icon808
Those kin phones has got to be the ugliest thing I have ever seen with a date plan required. I mean look at it.
I was like let me see,
You know when your best friend has a baby. They invite you over to see it. Your happy they had a baby and just want to join in with the rest of the family. But when you see the baby your face turns into a sour face like you just scarfed down a greasy steak burrito way too fast and you wish you didn't take the last bite because now thats the endgame. It's coming up and there's nothing you can do about it.
That what this kin was.
Microsoft made the baby, new it was the most ugliest piece of crap they built but dressed that baby up like nobody would realize how ugly that baby was.
Can't believe Microsoft actually had the balls to slap a $30 data plan on that asinine crap.
Do us a favor, Put windows mobile 7 into the Zune or just kill the whole windows mobile department. Thank you.
Written from a PC running Windows 7 which I love. That is all
@ryan420
Perhaps, abortion?
@icon808
Everytime I see this phone I'm reminded of the seinfeld where they are like
"Come on Jerry, You gotta see the baby"
I'll never forget Jerry's reaction hahaha
@icon808
Who is notifying its next of Kin?
The Windows CE decision can only be explained as:
DOGFOODING.
@marmaduke
Balmer: "Kin-ife the baby".
@marmaduke
No Kin Do.
Don't care about Kin. Although it's unprofessional to decide to release such a lame phone only to kill it soon afterward.
Still can't forgive MicroSoft killing the Courier.
@BlackedOut exactly. To me it seems like if you are going to pay for smartphone data, just buy a smartphone.
@icon808
Dead on arrival.
Or, Maggie in the kitchen with a led pipe!!!
@icon808
ive said from the beginning the kin really didn't make sense, not at the price point. 1) for the phone but more importantly 2) for the montly service. if its true that MS has a deal w/ verizon for a lower price monthly plan, then straight up pulled the rug from underneath them because things took longer than expected, well...if i were steve and the MS team, i'd be fucking pissed. As a slap in the face, i could imagine it would be fair to launch phones on sprint, tmobile and att but not verizon. Because honestly, they may have single-handedly cost MS millions of dollars. well, nothing is sweeter than eye for an eye. But i'll certainly have my kettle corn ready for the WP7 launch.
@icon808
Inkincievable.
@a dumb cat
Disagree. I know a bunch of young teens and tweens that have iPhones and the like. Same price for data.
What killed this for the teens was that it wasn't as cool as an iPhone. Its lack of smartphone functionality killed it for geeks and people who care about features. The data plan prices killed it for everyone else.
@SolidSnake
Pretty sure it's a Groucho Marx reference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCvz8y_DUSY
@a dumb cat
Thank you. That's exactly why this thing failed.
I'm so sick of everyone blaming the phone and the KIN OS. It was supposed to be simple. If it had a data plan that complimented the little amount of data that it was actually using, this thing would have sold like hotcakes.
I'm not a big fan of the Kin 2, but the Kin 1 is (was?) great. It's a really unique form factor. I have A LOT of industrial/graphic design friends (who, as I'm sure you know, are extremely mac biased) that said that they would want that phone more than the iPhone if it weren't for the expensive data plan.
Verizon basically strangled this thing before it had a chance to breathe.
@FNi I am the kin.
@icon808
I agree with anyone here who thinks the Kin died because it was targeted towards teens whose parents are paying their bills - and that if Apple had released it it with iOS it would have done very well.
AGGRESSIVE MARKETING IS EVERYTHING
@ryan420 Abortion?!?!?
@ryan420 Abortion?
@icon808
The company behind the MacKINtosh.
@nuclearopts
How many iOS 4 commercials have you seen?
@icon808
Microsoft did. You know how! This is not a victimless crime lol!
@icon808
In a World of IPhones, Adroids and Palms, they made a Windows ME!
@icon808 Who cares.. Windows 7 is good, I still like WinMo 6.5, Courier looked awesome, I prefer PS3 but the 360 is good.. Everything else MS is a joke.. They need to push back WP7 as well the only reason the iPhone survived a release with gaping holes is because its an iPod first and that was already a strong dominate brand and the hardware was top notch.. M$ is high as a kite if they think they can release an unheard of brand name, missing key features, on mediocre hardware, thats overpriced.. Its a joke the sidekicks had better build quality..
If this is foreshadowing for WP7.. Ill be happy with Android..
@icon808 Simple. They didn't have something worthwhile for either is their target markets. Teenagers simply want what's cool which is mainly the iPhone. Folk in their younger twenties are in college and want a more capable phone that's cool and that's either Android or iPhone and maybe Blackberry. Neither market wants a phone that only does social networking when Android and iPhone does that and much more whole having a higher coolness factor.
The second reason is that atrocious UI. It's an attempt at being artistic but its just crap all over the place. And I don't know why people keep talking about win phone 7 because that home screen is the same chaos. Again I understand the artistic negative space on the rest of the interface bit I don't think its going to work. The only people excited about win phone 7 are wIndows folk that feel left out Id all the Android and IPhone excitement and feel like traitors to use either one. These same people were the ones saying kin would sell mainly because they were so anxious to see the MS alternative. Win phone 7 is actually just as much in danger of flopping. The hard corp winmo base already dislikes it and thinks its a toy.
Verizon got frustrated?? Microsoft, please tell them to suck your billion dollar nuts. Well, iPhone didn't go to Verizon at first and now WP7 won't launch on Verizon either.... hmmm...
@Blaque14K
Not sure how you can see winphone 7 interface as chaotic. If anything, it's the most functional UI among all the OS.
There are tabs that denote services.
Data get pumped to their respective service tabs.
Opening a service takes you to your data with minimal UI.
What we've seen so far has shown it to be a very easy to understand; if understanding is even necessary.
I certainly don't think our current paradigm (icon grids, drop shadows, 3d effects, comic san-font apps) is really the epitome of usability and functionality.
@icon808
Lack of advertising. Lack of innovation. Lack of being a good deal. Lack of anything appealing to be honest...
@icon808 It seems like the buck stops as this VP of the Mobile Division, Andy Lees, for not foreseeing that shoehorning Danger Inc's intellectual property onto Windows CE whether it was a good idea or not would result in a cost of an 18-month delay to release.
Another commenter said that Microsoft should be pissed at Verizon but from what I can tell, if you understand how fast the mobile market, I believe Verizon was justified in pulling out on their original deal if it took Microsoft 18-months longer to finish the product that originally promised. 18-months in the mobile market is more than a lifetime in the mobile industry when Google is releasing a new version of Android every few months. I believe Microsoft is just being anti-competitive and a bully if they are retaliating against Verizon by dropping them as a launch partner for Windows 7 because Microsoft was expecting Verizon to upsell a product that should have come out 18 months prior. I wouldn't want to put my reputation and brand up for such a sub-par product either. I don't understand how Microsoft thinks that going after mainstream market also means that mediocre products are OK for their brand. It's not. Microsoft should learn something from Verizon's strive to continually have the best of breed network and best of breed phones.
Andy Lees needs to be fired and they need to hire someone that understands that the consequences of being slow in the mobile industry means that you're behind the competitive curve. If you're behind the competitive curve, you lose! Sorry Microsoft! Andy Lees just won't do. I agree with @BeeDavis. If Microsoft keeps this up, they should just close their mobile division now.
@ryan420 The unborn? That's one creepy-ass movie...