Kin One and Two reviewed
- Thread starter Florin
- Start date
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.
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.
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
Veteran
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.
Interesting Article on why the Kin line failed.
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/07/a-post-mortem-of-kins-tragic-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.
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/07/a-post-mortem-of-kins-tragic-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.
To [strike]compute[/strike] 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.
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.
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