WSJ: Microsoft Drops Kin Mobile Phone Less Than 2 Months After Launch

30th Jun 2010 23:22

By Nick Wingfield Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) plans to kill its Kin family of mobile phones aimed at young consumers less than two months after the products went on sale in the U.S. The Redmond, Wash., company said in a statement that it won't ship its two Kin phones in Europe this fall as planned and that it will work with its domestic carrier partner, Verizon Wireless, to sell its remaining supplies of Kins in the U.S. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD., VOD.LN). The company said Microsoft employees who worked on the Kin project will be folded into the company team working on Windows Phone 7, a new operating system for cellphones expected to ship on handsets by the holiday season. (This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.) Microsoft plans to incorporate "valuable ideas and technologies from Kin into future Windows Phone releases," the company said in a statement. Microsoft didn't state its reasons for shelving the project, but people familiar with the matter say Kin phones haven't met Microsoft's sales expectations since going on sale in May. The two phones were designed to appeal to teenagers and young adults with features heavily centered on social-networking sites like Facebook. -By Nick Wingfield, The Wall Street Journal (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 30, 2010 18:22 ET (22:22 GMT)