Unsold Kin phones returned by Verizon, online sales pulled

22nd July, 2010 by adina
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It seems that Verizon will return to Microsoft the unsold stock of the Kin line. The decision of the carrier is to give up selling the remaining stock and simply return the unsold phones to Microsoft. The company also decided to pull online sales of the Kin One and also the Kin Two entirely. Verizon is only selling the accessories now.

This is the formal end for the Kin, considered one of the greatest failures of Microsoft to date. The entire series has been dropped after six weeks, although it was investing years into this project. Microsoft is believed to have invested about $250 million for Kin’s marketing campaign. However, it succeeded to sell only 8,810 units during Kin’s whole lifetime. In contrast, three million iPhones have been sold in only three weeks. Based on the calculated average, Apple would have sold in two hours as many handsets as Microsoft during the whole period.

Kin’s short life was perhaps significantly determined by the decision of Verizon to charge $70 or even more for a device that was lacking many features of phones requiring the same plan. Leaks from insiders have also indicated executive jealousy as a cause. Windows Phone team seems to have forced an operating system change that produced a disastrous 18-month delay and killed a deal for lower rates for Verizon and also the time for the implementation of support for third-party applications and some other features which would have given a better chance to Kin.


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