Ballmer admitted Kin had stolen focus from Windows Phone

5th October, 2010 by adina
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In an interview, Microsoft’s chief Steve Ballmer admitted the Kin phones have been a fundamental mistake of his company. According to Microsoft’s executive, the basic feature phones had weakened Microsoft’s concentration on Windows Phone 7. In order to succeed, a device had to be both advanced and very concentrated.

Ballmer said that many things were to talk about and communicate, to work on with the costumer. One has to look forward and stay focused, but Kin was neither, with its 20-20 understanding.

A highest profile failure, such was considered the Kin line for Microsoft, and it was both too expensive and short-lived. About $240 million were spent even after excluding the $500 million representing the acquisition of Danger and there was deep infighting between the two teams, the Kin and the Windows Mobile one.

The two phones, Kin One and Two, were on the market for only six weeks and sold less than 10,000 units, well short of development expenditures. Verizon is blamed for unknowingly undermining the success of the Kin by requiring data plans at smartphone level. It was concerned enough about the lack of sales and cut them prematurely. The carrier went back on plans to wait until running out of stock.

The Kin series had been designed and planned to be a complement to Windows Phone, capture the low end and also be the spiritual successor to the Sidekick. The company is now investing its hopes entirely in Windows Phone 7 and aims to regain the position lost to the BlackBerry, Android and the iPhone.

In addressing the competition, Microsoft’s CEO was relatively modest. Related to the observation made by Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, that Bing was more competition to Google than the iPhone, Ballmer said he was flattered and added that both Google and Apple were good competitors for Microsoft.


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