Microsoft KIN: epic fail, and trouble in paradise

When Microsoft took the decision to put its smartphone model KIN out of its misery, just over two months after it launched, it was clear that things weren't going well within the Microsoft Mobile division. But now as the tech blogs pore over the wreckage, the whole story looks uglier than ever.

The KIN, which had two versions, was released in the US in April, and was aimed at the social networking crowd - but shortly after launch criticism started, prices were cut, and the KIN never made it across the pond to its planned European launch.

Even at the time that the KIN launched, questions were raised across the industry as to whether the world needed another lightweight, social media style smartphone - in particular one which turned out to be as light on features as the KIN was. Microsoft launched into the smartphone market well behind its competitors, with RIM's Blackberry and Apple's iPhone already streaks ahead - and judging by stories emerging now, it did so with bad planning and bad management.

A particularly insightful - although possibly not terribly constructive - view into what went wrong is offered by the Mini-Microsoft blog; with allegations of disinterested and ill-informed management and a team which became disaffected after good ideas and sound advice were ignored.

All of which is prompting prophesies of doom from industry analysts about Microsoft's whole mobile effort. While the KIN team - which joined Microsoft as part of its acquisition of Danger Inc - is now being folded into the Windows Phone 7 team, the damage may already have been done. As Jack Gold, analyst at J.Gold Associates, puts it "Enterprises will look at this Kin decision and ask, 'if Microsoft can't get Kin right, why would I think they will get WP7 right?' ".