Verizon halting Kin sales, supply getting returned to sender?
By Sean Hollister 
posted July 18th 2010 6:55PM
posted July 18th 2010 6:55PM
posted July 18th 2010 6:55PM
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AnaKIN
@wookieecrisp That name no longer has any more meaning for me
@wookieecrisp Palm pre for the win !!!
@ssgadget
http://nooooooooooooooo.com/
@wookieecrisp
i thought kin looked cool, and its much better than basic phones. seemed to be a good facebook phone.
@Lord Vader wookiecrisp's bait works!
@wookieecrisp 'KIN useless phone...
@MicrosoftOwns It probably would have done alright if it made a few changes, notably if they brought down the data charges for it. Full data charges for a Kin was silly.
I still think the square form factor was cool. They should debadge them, install Android and sell them at Fry's for $50.
@Enrico The square form factor actually reminds me of that TMNT communicator toy! LOLZ
@Enrico I can buy a frys branded chair, wifi router, and phone. I think i'll go to frys now
@Enrico Smiths for Utah/Wyoming customers.
This was expected
R. I. P. KIN
@Eli Haj
ha! Like Cal Ripken.
should have made a GSM version and released it out side US also with zune services out side US.
@rakeshin
I know, call me crazy but I would have buy one unlocked Kin 2 if it had a gsm flavor.
@sinco If they released it as a feature phone and pulled the syncing abilities?
@rakeshin
There were plans for a GSM Kin, for the scrubbed international launch. Not sure if Verizon's US exclusive also would have prevented the GSM Kin from being launched in the US.
Even if every MS employee bought one, they should have sold over 50k, but they only sold 500, LOL
@dementedacademic That statement makes less than no sense. Why would a Microsoft employee be expected to buy a phone with limited corporate e-mail functionality, heavily focused on networking, and targeted towards outgoing and social youths? (something you rarely find in the software industry)
i cant believe they sold over 500 of these polly pockets
@WillSmith dude that number is false. do some research before posting.
they sold around 9000.
@WillSmith The neuralizer did even worse in sales.
@pinktacoyummm
He said "over 500." 9000 is quite a bit over 500. His point still stands. Maybe he was just in disbelief that they managed to sell over 500 KIN phones.
@pinktacoyummm It's over 9000!
This was never going to work because Verizon's too cheap to provide an inexpensive data plan so Kin could've effectively targeted the younger crowd with an affordable plan combo with voice and text
@PeDe "Verizon's too cheap to provide an inexpensive data plan"
Genius.
Lol, we all knew it would fail
According to an unnamed source, a man going by the name of "Martin Gartenberg" appears to have purchased the entire remaining stock, and intends to build a shrine to this hero of market research and focus grouping.
@DrDr Michael's brother?
@d0mth0ma5
sshhh.... he's under cover
I hope new Microsoft employees enjoy their Kin joining gift, at least until WP7 gets released.
Ouch.
put an apple badge on them rise the price to 700 pounds and they will sell them .
@supermanjason Troll
@SuperModified
It's true.
Gee, they should have stuck to Tmobile, like Danger did. Or put it one of those pay-as-you-go services like Boost or those other MVNO services.
I still think it may have had potential, but an expensive data plan and not enough social features and built-in apps on the phone made this a fail from the start.
@Quikboy
I think this would've had so much more potential on T-Mobile.
Who the hell would cough up that much money for their children on the Verizon Network?
That message is the Kin equivalent of "I'm just going outside; I may be away some time" except without the heroism.
A good friend of mine is the regional manager for Verizon, and gave me a free KIN 2 (I haven't activated it... probably never will) and the magnetic store display poster... for nostalgia.
The real cause of death for the kin, I believe is being on Verizon. To much competition from better phones and an expensive plan. They belonged more on T-Mobile or even Metro PCS. A limited data plan at an affordable cost would have placed kin where it needed to be, as smartphone light.
@JaylanPHNX
Don't entertain the possible life support possibilities for that bullshit product.
@JaylanPHNX Tmo only has unlimited data plans and for that phone it would have been phone first web at $10 a month for unlimited.
@JaylanPHNX
I can't imagine anyone in their right mind getting a kin over the slew of decent android phones on T mobile.
The real cause of death...was that the phones sucked.
@Spaceshipped
Make that the phones sucked because you couldn't download apps. And teens want to customize their phones with wallpaper, apps, games, and such. The Kin didn't allow for it, yet even an LG enV3 on the same network (Verizon) lets you download apps and games.
i wish i could get one ... they will be rare collector items
Going to sound like a broken record
but like everyone said if this was on a different network it would have survived.
Like a metro PCS $40 unlimited everything would have been a great deal for this phone.
Now E.T. won't be so lonely.
@arkweld
But it won't help the P.D.E.