Throwback Thursday: The miserable, short-lived life of the Microsoft Kin

3 min. read

Published onJuly 2, 2015

published onJuly 2, 2015

Share this article

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

Every Thursday, social media feeds tend to get injected with a dose of nostalgia. We don’t typically do Throwback Thursdays here at WinBeta but we thought we’d try it out, take a little break from all the new build releases before we have to cover a new one tomorrow.

On this particular Thursday, we travel back to April 12, 2010. Just two months after Microsoft surprised us with the announcement of the all-new Windows Phone 7 Series, the software giant introduced two new phones to the world. We curiously said hello to the Kin One and Kin Two.

The Kin line were designed for the young, and the restless. As well as those that constantly lost themselves in social networks, forever chatting, liking, tweeting, favoriting etc. Microsoft defined this group as people between the ages of 15-30.

The Kin One, shaped like a turtle, featured a 2.6” touchscreen, a physical QWERTY keyboard, a NVIDIA Tegra processor, 4GB of storage, 256MB of RAM, a 5MP camera towards the back and the usual bunch of connectivity hardware and sensors.

The Kin Two was less rounded and looked more like a smartphone (although both Kins were marketed as feature phones), it came with a larger 3.4” display, a wider QWERTY keyboard, the same Tegra processor and RAM capacity, but with 8GB of storage and an 8MP 720p rear camera.

The devices were supported by the Kin Studio, a cloud storage service that automatically backed up all the content of the Kin including photos, videos, messages, contacts and more into a presentable website that would be easily accessible from any PC. From the looks of it, Kin Studio seemed quite innovative for its time, considering it’s practically what OneDrive (and SkyDrive before it) does today.

Despite being branded as “Windows Phones”, the two Kins actually ran a custom version of Windows CE. Though, contradictory to its target market, KIN OS was anything but active and in motion. Reviewers called it cluttered, unintuitive and claimed that it lagged like nobody’s business. By the time Microsoft could do anything about it, the damage had been done.

Verizon Wireless, the exclusive provider of these Sharp-built devices pulled the devices within months due to poor sales, and Microsoft discontinued the product completely and reassigned its development team following a second measly attempt to sell off existing units.

The onslaught of bad reviews may have been only one of a number of reasons why the Kin failed.Wiredseems to think it was not only because of the shortcomings of Kin OS, but also because of the lack of solid app support, poor marketing with its “faux hipster vibe”, and an expensive starting price.

Whatever the reasons, the Kins came, and were quickly forgotten. Still, it wasn’t all bad for Microsoft. The company was determined to get back into the smartphone race with Windows Phone 7, which jumpstarted the push towards the rather wonderful Modern world of Windows that we’re in today.

#ThrowbackThursday

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

User forum

0 messages

Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Commenting as.Not you?

Save information for future comments

Comment

Radu Tyrsina

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

Throwback Thursday: The miserable, short-lived life of the Microsoft Kin#

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

Throwback Thursday: The miserable, short-lived life of the Microsoft Kin