Bonum Certa Men Certa

KIN is Dead, Zune May Naturally Jump the Shark Next

Zune Mayday
Via OpenBytes



Summary: Now that Microsoft abandons "KIN" (just weeks after its official launch) the investment in Zune code makes less sense and there may be a chain reaction

A FEW days ago we made a picture of a drowning ship bearing the word "KIN". How prophetic that must have been. Only a day or two later it turned out that "KIN" joins the long list of dead products from Microsoft. Watch out for the domino effect because now is a good time to put Zune to sleep. "KIN" (project Pink* or "Zune phone") gave Zune some reason to exist, but that plan is no more. "Microsoft Kills Kin," reveals Gizmodo.



Just six weeks after launch, Microsoft's Kin, the social phone we wanted to love, is dead. Microsoft is ending its short life, sources close to Microsoft tell us.


Microsoft's boosters confirm this. Neowin, a Microsoft proponents site, does too.

Disappointing sales have led Microsoft to cancel its Kin mobile phone initiative a little more than a month after the company launched the devices, according to sources close to the company.


David Gerard writes enthusiastically: "Over 500 sold! Maybe!" Gerard refers to rumoured numbers that Microsoft never bothered to refute. "Microsoft has neither confirmed nor denied reports that only 500 of the Kins were sold since the launch last month," says the news. In IRC, Ryan Farmer says: "Wow, that's $1 million a phone [because Microsoft bought Danger for $500 million], but at least they got $50 back from each one." He quotes: "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..."

Ryan translates that to: "Dear investors, we didn't waste your money, we recycled it!"

“Wow, that's $1 million a phone, but at least they got $50 back from each one.”
      --Ryan Farmer
We'll study this whole story over the weekend and post more findings shall they arise.

"KIN" is just one example of why Microsoft is falling apart, as we pointed out on Tuesday. Windows Mobile has branched off into too many paths. Microsoft's fragmented portfolio in the mobile space [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] happens to be similar to Microsoft's endless redesign and rebranding of its so-called 'search engine' which it uses to deceive people.

"According to Statcounter," wrote Ryan last night. "Bing only brought MSN/Live Search from 3.25% market share since the rebranding to 3.75% as of this month. That's a lot of money to maybe have brought Google down half a percent."

Microsoft has been spending (wasting) billions of dollars on it and it is also paying comScore [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10], which then shows a load of garbage (US-only figures that contradict ones from firms not paid by Microsoft).

Ryan concludes this with the question: "How do you tell your investors you spent $1 billion in rebranding, development, and bribes to gain a half a percent on your competitor?" _____ * "The Kin devices were the result of extensive development under the code name "Project Pink," and based in part on technologies acquired by Microsoft in its $500 million purchase of Danger Inc," says the news.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Politicians Ought to Invite Dr. Richard Stallman and Prof. Eben Moglen to Speak About Policies, Licensing, Digital Sovereignty
Is there something in Europe other than RMS' talk this coming Monday (that we're not yet aware of)?
Good Explanation of Why IBM Has Chosen to Conceal Mass Layoffs (of 'Expensive' Staff) as "R.T.O." (Even For People Who Never Worked at the Office to Which They're Ordered to "Return")
Many remaining IBM (or Red Hat) workers in Europe are in "cheaper" places such as Brno
Microsoft's Serial Strangler and Matthew J. Garrett Join Forces in Trying to Gag Techrights (for Exposing Microsoft Corruption and Crimes Against Women)
Whose terrible idea was it?
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Proud to Host Free Software Talk by Richard Stallman
ahead of Monday's talk
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Machine-Generated FUD (LLM Slop) From GBHackers, CybersecurityNews, and Guardian Digital, Inc (Google News Promotes Slop Plagiarism, Misinformation)
Companies that lie try to drown out the signal with falsehoods
 
Links 22/02/2025: OpenAI Plans to Possibly Abandon Microsoft, Facebook Doubles Execs' Bonuses While Sacking Thousands
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/02/2025: Weekend Chill and Programming Thoughts
Links for the day
Links 22/02/2025: Labour Department Investigates Microsoft Infosys Amid Mass Layoffs, Large Law Firms Caught Red Handed With LLM Slop (Defrauding Clients and Courts)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/02/2025: Analog Stuff, Sigil, and SSGs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Market Share in Cameroon Falls to New Lows
This means a lot of Android users (iOS is about 4 times smaller), but Android does not mean freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 21, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 21, 2025
The Streisand Effect is Real
So don't be evil. Also, don't strangle women.
Links 21/02/2025: Linux Foundation Openwashing, Microsoft Copilot Goes Down
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: Doomscrolling and European Ham Radio Show
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: TikTok Layoffs, WebOS Software Patents in Bad Hands
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/02/2025: Web Browsers, Mechanical Shortcuts, and Internet Hygiene
Links for the day
Richard Stallman 'Only' Founded the FSF
there's no reason to be upset at the FSF for keeping their founder in the Board
Techrights Disconnected From the United States Two Years Ago
Did people really need to wait for the US government to become this hostile towards the media before recognising the threat?
Before Trying Censorship by Extortion the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Literally Begged Us to Delete Pages
This is very clearly just a broad campaign of intimidation
Hype Watch: Weeks After Microsoft Disappointed Investors With "Hey Hi" It's Trying Some "Quantum" Hype (Adding Impractical Vapourware to Accompany This Hype and Even LLM Slop in 'News' Clothing)
Remember "metaverse"? What happened to media hype about "blockchain" and "IoT"?
Report About February Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025) Comes Back From the Dead
Yesterday we wrote about an article in CRN (reporting Microsoft layoffs) being removed without any reasons specified
Links 21/02/2025: Myanmar Scam Centre and Disruptions at USPTO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 20, 2025
gbhackers.com is Not Hackers, It's LLM Slop Outputs (Fake 'Articles') That Attack 'True Hackers'
A site called linuxsecurity.com keeps doing this and now we see the slopfarm gbhackers.com doing the same
Gemini Links 20/02/2025: Law of Warming and Cooling, Health, and Devlog
Links for the day
linuxsecurity.com Continues to Spread Lies or Machine-Generated FUD (Microsoft LLMs Likely the Source) About OpenSSH and Linux
this LLM problem is global
Links 20/02/2025: Microsoft Infosys Layoffs and IRS Layoffs (Good News for Rich Tax Evaders)
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Europe Already Happening or Underway (UK and Spain). They Try Not to Call These "Layoffs".
"CIO" in particular was repeatedly mentioned lately, as was Consulting
People Who Came From Microsoft Demanding Removal of Articles About Them, About Microsoft, and About Microsoft GitHub is "Generous" (According to Them)
Imagine choosing a law firm that borrows money in the same year just to avoid overdraft in the bank!
Possibly a Third Round of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 ("Cloud Solution Architects, Customer Roles"), Report Removed or Censored
This is literally the top story for "microsoft layoffs" right now
Instead of 'DoS Protection' Cloudflare is Allegedly Conducting 'DoS Attacks' on Users of Browsers Other Than Firefox and GAFAM's DRM Sandboxes (Chrome, Safari and Others)
If you value the Web, you will avoid Cloudflare
Mixing Real With Fake in One 'Article' (by "Director of Content, Help Net Security")
From what we can gather, he got machines to generate some slop for him
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 19, 2025