{"id":3140,"date":"2010-07-20T12:07:57","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T16:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=3140"},"modified":"2020-01-16T10:48:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T18:48:41","slug":"microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=3140","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe<\/a>\u201d –\u00a0a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Microsoft <\/strong>– USA
\nProject type : <\/strong>Mobile phone (Kin)
\nDate :<\/strong> Jun 2010 Cost :<\/strong>Unconfirmed reports of $1B USD<\/p>\n

Synopsis :<\/strong>
\nMicrosoft’s “Kin” phones (Kin one and Kin two) are withdrawn from the market after just two months. \u00a0The phones were designed for the younger market and those who are heavy users of social networking sites. \u00a0Despite the the price being cut in half, lacklustre sales are reported. \u00a0Cost of the project is undisclosed, but is likely to have been significant with ‘Information Week’ reporting a figure in the region of $1B.<\/p>\n

Contributing factors as reported in the press:<\/strong>
\nCause of the failure are speculative, but clearly tough competition from Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and Android based phones already on the market made a new entry more difficult. \u00a0Some sources also cite a lack of marketing as many target users had never heard of the phone at the time of cancellation (FYI – I did my own mini-survey of the target market and no-one had heard of the Kin). \u00a0The lack of marketing may be reflective of a lack of senior management support for the project at its release (reference\u00a0engadget article<\/a>). \u00a0Reports also indicate the phone lacked some basic functions that users required (such as a calendar or the ability to run games). High cost of the data and texting plans may also have been a factor.<\/p>\n

Reference links :<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Microsoft pulls the plug on Kin<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. MS Kin (Wikipedia page)<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Does It Matter How Many Kins Microsoft Sold?<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe\u201d –\u00a0a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Microsoft – USA Project type : Mobile phone (Kin) Date : Jun 2010 Cost :Unconfirmed reports of $1B USD Synopsis : Microsoft’s “Kin” phones (Kin one and Kin two) are withdrawn from the market […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,77],"tags":[132,129,93,147],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-private-sector","category-failed-project","category-why-projects-fail","tag-private-sector","tag-failed-project","tag-why-do-projects-fail","tag-why-projects-fail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9026,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions\/9026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}