Microsoft’s phone for the teens will be discontinued soon without seeing the light of day in Europe.
My colleague Jacob called it quite a while back, saying that the KIN didn’t have a future. It seems he was right. Microsoft has announced that it is planning to merge the KIN team into the Windows Phone 7 group.
As of now Verizon and Microsoft will sell off the KINs that are presently in the wild, though I see no reason why one would buy it now. Europe will not see any KINs officially.
Microsoft had the following to say on the issue:
“We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.”
Microsoft and Verizon tried to slash the prices and spend big bucks on a campaign but that didn’t seem to attract any customers. The phone got mixed reaction, negative mostly but was a good start.
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Hopefully we shall see some KIN features in Windows Phone 7. KIN Spot should be top on Microsoft’s list.
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