Kin listed as at least $240 million writeoff in Microsoft earnings report
By Ross Miller 
posted July 22nd 2010 8:50PM
posted July 22nd 2010 8:50PM
posted July 22nd 2010 8:50PM
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ouch
@aaronbustillos
I could have put $800,000,000 to much better use :/
@angelusp They would have come out even if they sold those 8500 an HD2 preinstalled with existing social media apps instead and given them a free Prius on top of that.
pennies to Microsoft.
@aaronbustillos
i look at it like it was a good research project. good things came out of kin, like studio, and other technologies which will be incorporated into windows phone.
they could have stopped world hunger.
@aaronbustillos Ouch indeed. I don't see how MS can continue if they keep screwing things up like this.
I'm no MS fan, but I think that things like this weaken the whole market. I wasn't sold on the Kin, however I know a lot of people were. To can it is just stupid. Thank Steve "chairs through windows" Balmer!
@aaronbustillos
WTF?! Can I write off all my mistakes when I do my income taxes?
@MicrosoftOwns Good research project? Courier was a good research project, but got canned before it could become a real product. Kin was not a good research project. The only good thing was the Kin studio (which I believe existed before as Windows Live phone sync)
@MicrosoftOwns 80,000,000,000 pennies to be exact.
@MicrosoftOwns Right... Keep telling yourself that. Mearly a taste of things to come.
Next up: Android...
@aaronbustillos
My thoughts exactly
@sortius
Screwing things up how? They developed something nobody in the market has with studio. Also, fully integration to networking sites in the cloud without a third party app. This was danger's project, not microsoft but they gave in anx threw some money out there. The dumbphone was just that, a so-so dumbphone with great potential but verizon data plans killed it.
@Plazmic Flame
Yep, it's called the Child Tax Credit.
The Kin seems to be one of Microsoft's biggest flops since Bob, but from the sounds of it, it was mostly their own fault. If the story about company politics is true, then that's what really killed this. The phones may have sucked but they could've put the software on better devices in the future. The software was the emphasis of the Kin, not the hardware.
Also, they could've placed terms for data pricing in the contract. The Kin may have died, but it sounds like because it mostly wasn't given the chance it should have been given.
@ddicted
LOL!! You cheeky bastard!!
@mikmik111 now the 'upload generation' has spent so much money on data that they can't eat either, adding to the problem.
@Plazmic Flame you can write off your mistakes if you are a business and the mistakes were made in connection with revenue producing activities.
@Shadow08 Man, $800 million. That is more than all but the most elite companies' operating budgets. Amazing the volume of cash Redmond has at it's disposal and just how little they accomplish with it.
Kin cost much more.
Danger Inc cost $500 million alone. Money down drain.
2-years development by a few hundred codes = another $500 million.
We're looking at over a billion dollars minimum. That's a cost of over $100,000 per Kin phone.
@mikmik111 so can apple. (why dont they)
@IT expert
So about 25% of one quarter's profits?
OK then.
@MarkAnderson And this is why the board wants blamers head - that's a huge % of earnings lost.
@MicrosoftOwns so true.
@chrisrottan
This was really MS's project from the start. They had worked on it for over a year before purchasing Danger. I would like to see them get it together in mobile, but it's not looking good.
Wow, Just hope WP7 is more successful
@cwalters74 Open your eyes!
@Khris Come on, WP7 will at least sell more than 500 units.
@Cainhunpi
Imagine what could have been, if the development $$$ for this travesty that ANYONE and EVERYONE knew would be DOA had instead gone toward the Courier.
Everyone that owns Microsoft stock should be demanding an answer to that question.
Quarter Billion not quarter million.
Wow...Bob II was worse than Bob I by quite a margin.
I'm on a horse.
@kruger4gamecocks
I'm on a boat.
@kruger4gamecocks
I'm on a cart backwards.
@kruger4gamecocks
I'm on your mom
@kruger4gamecocks
Im in your mom
@SomeGuyAtSomePlace
I'm Nitesh.
@Nitesh
I'M CAPTAIN KIRK
@Arise:
I'm on a dolphin, doing flips and sh**
@SomeGuyAtSomePlace
I am your....... nevermind.
@kruger4gamecocks Do you also smell like one?
D'oh!
You don't even know what a write-off is
but they do
yeah
and they're the ones writing it off
(+1000 points if you know the reference)
@AlienSix
I wish I had the last twenty seconds of my life back...
@New Reformation And yet you found the time to write a 4 second comment
@AlienSix
It was a reference to the bit on Seinfeld! It is what Jerry says after discussing the issue with Kramer.
@AlienSix
New Reformation had it right.
http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ThePackage.htm
@New Reformation ha wow fail on my part, plus +3000 to you good sir, wow cant believe i missed that -_-
@AlienSix That was all great to read the back and forth then the script.
On that note, I'm not an accountant, but I was decent in accounting. I think that marketing costs are typically a contra-revenue account, so it'd be including in the write off. We shouldn't be adding it to the figure already reported.
The more i look at Microsoft the more i realize that they can only make money thru monopoly like Office and Windows. Basically the company has nothing else going for it (X box is tiny).