Kin - Tao of Mac

Kin is Microsoft’s “vertical” mobile proposition, based on their acquisition of Danger on 2008. Both initial devices bear testimony to their “Sidekick”:Wikipedia:Danger_Hiptop heritage, and were unmistakably targeted at the youth segment.

However, the whole thing tanked faster than the Titanic.

Date	Link	Notes
Jul 07	Mini-Microsoft: The KIN-fusing KIN-clusion to KIN, and FY11 Microsoft Layoff Rumors	Probably the most interesting post-mortem yet.
Jul 03	Feature: Post mortem: KIN’s tragic demise	Another post-mortem.
Jul 02	T-Mobile kills off current Sidekicks, Kin says ‘welcome to the club’	Wow.
Jul 02	5 Lessons Learned From the Microsoft Kin Debacle	I don’t think Microsoft is ready to learn any of this.
Jul 01	Inform the next of KIN: Microsoft’s tween phone is no more	The end of the Sidekick era. What a waste.
	Microsoft Is Killing The Kin
	What killed the Kin?
Jun 30	For Microsoft, the Mobile Market Has No Kins-hip	ouch.
Jun 29	Kin One drops to $29, Two drops to $49, data plans remain silly expensive	It’s dead, Jim.
Jun 18	RUMOR: Microsoft has only sold 500 “Kin” phones. Sounds silly, even for the DOA Kin. But let’s do a straw poll: Has a…	Ouch.
Jun 16	Microsoft prepping Yahoo, AIM, and Windows Live Messenger support for Kin?	Hmm.
Jun 01	Best Buy now offering Kin One free, Kin Two for $50 on contract	The wonders of subsidized markets.
May 19	Teardown gets to the silicon heart of the Kin Two	Interesting.
May 19	Microsoft Kin Two gets torn apart, reveals Sony image sensor	Interesting.
May 13	Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac	Well, that’s fresh.
May 12	Microsoft and Verizon say Kin’s monthly pricing isn’t crazy, when you think about it	Everything’s relative.
May 06	Kin available tomorrow, but pricing may hamper adoption	Ah, the wonders of pricing.
May 05	Kin available online starting tomorrow, in Verizon stores on May 13	Looks like they’re both subsidized, as usual.
May 05	Microsoft Kin One and Two review	Reasonably in-depth.
Apr 28	Kin firmware torn apart, reveals provisioning for AT&T, T-Mobile, Fido?	Already?
Apr 23	Microsoft Kin specs update: 600MHz processors, ambient sensors	A bit more info on the hardware.
Apr 14	Microsoft Kin: everything you ever wanted to know	…milking it a bit more…
Apr 14	Editorial: Engadget on Microsoft Kin	If you don’t know what to write, poll contradictory opinions…
Apr 13	feature: Microsoft KIN hands-on: Great ideas in a teeny-bop package	Ars gets it.
	Entelligence: Think Pink – First take on Microsoft’s Kin	“Michael Gartenberg”:Wikipedia:Michael_Gartenberg also gets it, but then again he’s probably closest to it than most.
	Why You Don’t Want a Microsoft Kin Phone	PCWorld doesn’t, not by a long shot. This kind of piece is why most tech journalism is useless these days…
	Hands-on First Impressions of Microsoft’s Kin Phones	I find it interesting that the article says the Spot is finicky and that the device tries to do too much at once – my impressions were precisely the opposite (i.e., the spot works fine and it’s easy to focus on what you want to do, regardless of the different visual design). It’s a phone for teens, not for techies.
	Kin is basically a Zune HD inside, can go for a weekend on a charge	This is one of the best bits – the devices seem to be very energy-efficient, and people are tired of re-charging every day.
	Microsoft: Kin and Windows Phone 7 will share more technology over time	The target segments are completely different, though…
Apr 12	Vodafone to Bring Microsoft KIN Phone to Europe	Yep. Gonna be business as usual, then.
Apr 11	Microsoft Pink livestream page offers glimpse of Turtle, Pink name changing at launch	Of course it’s going to change.
Apr 5	Microsoft invites us to mystery event, April 12th! Update: for Pink phones?	Yep, of course it is.