Mobile
Microsoft KIN Sales Beyond Terrible
The Microsoft KIN is a flop by any measure, but there are some numbers floating around that are beyond embarrassing to Microsoft. According to an anonymous Microsoft source quoted at Daring Fireball, Verizon has sold a grand total of 503 KINs. Pocketnow is disputing that three-digit number and pointing to the fact that there are about 8,803 monthly users of the Facebook KIN app, an app that can only be used by KIN users. The Facebook app numbers could be a good proxy for the number of KIN users out there since the device was marketed as a social networking phone.
Regardless of which number is most accurate, both are so low that Microsoft employees are ashamed. Here’s the exact quote from the anonymous Microsoft employee:
“We had a huge launch party on campus and I bet that party cost more than the amount of revenues we took in on the product. As an employee, I am embarrassed. As a shareholder, I am pissed. It’s one thing to incubate products and bring them to a proof-of-concept to see what works, but it’s something else to launch. I suspect we launched because we felt like we HAD to so we could save face because we were trying to build buzz, but overall — HUGE fail.”
As Sumocat pointed out earlier, the Microsoft has a lot to learn from the failure of the device.
Sumocat
07/08/2010 at 1:22 pm
Sadly, that app user count doesn’t really mean anything either. That’s just the number of Kin Facebook apps that have been activated. That number will include test units, test apps not on Kins, activated store models, units given away internally at Microsoft and Verizon, other giveaways, etc., etc. It’s unlikely but still possible only 503 of those activations were from purchased units.
What’s more telling are the number of reviews and fans. 59 reviews, six of which are from before the Kin was released. Only 589 fans for a social networking device. “Beyond terrible” is the only way to describe it.
Mark
07/09/2010 at 2:33 pm
The upside is…well, the HOPEFUL upside is that microsoft is getting the message that it’s WAY WAY WAY behind the times when it comes to mobile computing and that will be have to go WAY WAY WAY above and beyond if they expect anyone to even notice Windows Mobile 7. The bare minimum isn’t going to cut it. Not with hardware, not with software, not with the system, nowhere is the bare minimum going to cut it. In fact, the only thing Microsoft had better be cutting is deals with carriers so you can pick up a decent WinMo7 phone without being raped on the price. It’s going to be a long time before I forget about that piece of trash Sprint Titan with it’s lack of RAM and slow, bloated WinMo 6 chugging along and freezing because I dared to run two programs at the same time.
Virtuous
07/10/2010 at 9:28 pm
MS spent $500 million to buy Danger and $250 million to market Kin. MS should have just given me 3/4 of a billion. I could have made much better use of this enormous sum.