Tech Tales · Corbin Davenport

Microsoft Kin

·37 min·2 clips

Wired said the Kin One’s total cost would be at least $3,410 with the required Verizon contract.

1. Tech Tales’ “Microsoft Kin” traces Microsoft’s Kin phones from Project Pink to the April 12, 2010 Verizon launch. 2. Corbin Davenport hosts with Joe Fidua, and their comments matter because they compare Kin to the iPhone, Android, and Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile efforts. 3. The episode asks why Microsoft called Kin “a new Windows phone designed specifically for people who are actively navigating their social lives.” 4. Jay Allard led the project before 2008, after work on Windows networking, the Xbox division, and Zune. 5. Microsoft bought Danger Inc. in February 2008 for about $500 million, mainly for intellectual property tied to the Sidekick. 6. In 2008, the iPhone 3G, App Store, and early Android phones were still arriving, while BlackBerry, Palm, and Windows Mobile were still active. 7. The hosts note that Kin was supposed to share a foundation with Windows Mobile 7, later Windows Phone 7. 8. Delays in Windows Mobile 7 pushed Kin toward a more custom platform that still sat on Windows CE. 9. Engadget’s Chris Ziegler is quoted saying Andy Lees did not care about the project and rescaled Pink to fit the Windows Phone roadmap. 10. Verizon later changed data pricing, and Microsoft’s internal concerns about missing features were reportedly ignored. 11. Kin Loop merged Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Microsoft services into one home screen. 12. The Spot button let users drag photos, videos, and texts into a share target on the phone. 13. Kin Studio created a timeline for photos, videos, and events and let users move media between the cloud and a PC. 14. The Kin One and Kin Two both had touchscreens, slide-out keyboards, and dedicated camera buttons, but the Kin Two added more memory and an 8-megapixel camera. 15. The built-in browser was slow and buggy, the email app was limited, and the Loop feed updated only every 15 minutes. 16. The phone also lacked an app store, instant messaging apps, games, YouTube playback, a calendar, visual voicemail, and a real maps app despite GPS hardware. 17. Wired calculated that a $50 Kin One still cost at least $3,410 over two years, and Engadget said the pricing shocked them. 18. The ad with a man photographing his chest drew a Consumer Reports complaint and a Microsoft apology after the Register called it a “millisecond flash” of male flesh and nipple. 19. The tone is analytical and chronological, with product details, review quotes, and ad reads used as evidence. 20. Listeners who like smartphone history, Microsoft hardware, and failed product launches will get the most from it; listeners wanting a short product story may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear postmortem of a social phone that never fully matched its promise.

Microsoft Kin reads like a phone that wanted to sit at the center of a social life and never quite got there. The browser was thin, messaging stayed limited, the home screen refreshed too slowly to feel alive, and the rest of the experience kept nudging people back to the mobile…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear how Microsoft tried to make Kin its answer to the iPhone and Android, then missed.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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