[Florin]

Engadget got their review out.

In the end, we're left with two orphan devices -- phones that feel like they should have been killed before they made it to market, but somehow slipped through. It's clear to us from conversations we've had with Microsoft that there are people at the company with good ideas about what phones should and shouldn't do, but we don't feel the Kin is representative of those ideas. The execution (or lack thereof) on these products makes us legitimately concerned about what the company will do with Windows Phone 7. We can only hope that the similarities between those devices and the Kin handsets don't stretch much further than the "Windows Phone" label, because in our estimation, Kin is one side of the family that needs to be disowned... quickly.

Not terribly good news for Tegra then.

[Rys]

I'm actually a fan of the Kins, although I could take or leave the Two if it were me. The One seems like a really slick experience from what I've seen, and I don't buy the biggest criticisms from all of the major reviews I've read (most centering on the data plan pricing, rather than the hardware or software or how both come together in use).

The UI is pretty slick and coherent, it seems fast, and all the major selling points seem nailed. I think the reason they haven't reviewed well is because those doing the analysis are all die-hard superphone fans and can't wean themselves off of high-end HTC devices or iPhone enough to understand what Microsoft were attempting.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Kins did a 'PSP' and just quietly sold in good volume without disturbing the major players, with buyers really enjoying the experience.

As for the hardware, I don't think Tegra brings anything to the Kin party that a bazillion other SoCs would have done in its place. So it's not a great advert for NVIDIA's hardware, agreed, but their neither does it really need to be.

Would love to use a Kin One for real just to check though.

[Renny 722]

The Kin seems like a last ditch effort to compete in an already saturated market. I dont see how it surpasses the iPhone, Droid or Blackberry.

[Helmore]

Originally Posted by Renny 722

The Kin seems like a last ditch effort to compete in an already saturated market. I dont see how it surpasses the iPhone, Droid or Blackberry.

They're not even trying to surpass the iPhone, Droid and Blackberry. They are trying to address a completely different market, the Sidekick market so to speak and not the smartphone market. It's somewhere between a featurephone and a smartphone, but it's certainly not a dumbphone either. Time will tell whether such a market really exists though.

[aaronspink]

Originally Posted by Helmore

They're not even trying to surpass the iPhone, Droid and Blackberry. They are trying to address a completely different market, the Sidekick market so to speak and not the smartphone market. It's somewhere between a featurephone and a smartphone, but it's certainly not a dumbphone either. Time will tell whether such a market really exists though.

Problem is, it is a disappearing market, and the pricing is square in the smartphone territory. The so called featurephone/sidekick market existed only because the smartphones of the time were so expensive, we now have smartphones that are FWA.

[Florin]

The Kin series is cancelled.

Word on the street is they sold about 500 in all of the USA.

[Richard]

That many? Anyway, I hope they recycle the Kin Studio service, that thing showed potential.

[RobertR1]

lol 500!? I cring to think how far in the red the P&L's for this venture was.

[RudeCurve]

Man that's one ugly phone.

I will say that phones with keyboards are fairly popular for people who text a lot.

[OICAspork]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...ic-demise.ars/

Not invented here seems to be the main reason. Had the phone come out 18 months earlier with a more reasonable pricing plan, I think it would have done very well.

[frogblast]

To compute completely make up some numbers:

Microsoft bought danger for $500,000,000.
Assume their ongoing sidekick revenue roughly offsets the post-acquisition R&D expenses
Assume generously that they moved the 10,000 units mentioned in the Ars article

Comes out to a loss of $50,000 per unit sold.

[Rys]

Originally Posted by Rys

I wouldn't be surprised if the Kins did a 'PSP' and just quietly sold in good volume without disturbing the major players, with buyers really enjoying the experience.

Welp, I got that one pretty wrong

[Florin]

Please tell me you're predicting a Spain win this Sunday Rys