Microsoft smartphone gets the axe

SAN FRANCISCO

JUST 48 days after Microsoft began selling the Kin, a smartphone for the younger set, the company discontinued it because of disappointing sales.

The swift turnabout for the Kin, which Microsoft took two years to develop and whose release was backed with a hefty ad budget, is the latest sign of disarray for Microsoft’s recently reorganised consumer-product unit.

“It’s an absolute failure,” said Mr Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, adding that he was surprised to see Microsoft kill a product so quickly, given the company’s history of sticking with new products and improving them over time.

Microsoft’s consumer-product unit has struggled to offer a credible competitor to Apple products.

It has chased the iPod with its Zune for several years with little effect. Apple’s iPhone, as well as an array of smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, is a more recent challenge.

Microsoft also recently cancelled a project to develop a tablet computer that would compete with Apple’s popular iPad.

Microsoft said that it would move employees who had worked on the Kin to the team in charge of Windows Phone 7, a coming revision of Microsoft’s operating system for smartphones,which is due in autumn.

But Mr Golvin said that the recent success of Android phones and Apple’s new iPhone 4 make Microsoft’s challenge to compete effectively ever more daunting.

“They have an even higher mountain to climb now than when they announced Windows Phone 7 in  February,” he said. The Kin, which came in two models, was aimed at young users and emphasised access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

While neither Microsoft nor Verizon Wireless, which sold the Kin exclusively, disclosed sales figures, people close to the companies said that sales were disappointing.

Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to US$50 (S$69) from US$200 for the higher-end model, and to US$30 from US$150 for the stripped-down version.

Microsoft said it would cancel the pending release of the Kin in Europe, and would work with Verizon Wireless to sell existing inventories.

NYT

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