Joshua Topolsky, on Microsoft’s new Kin phones:
The Kin is perplexing to me, and doubly so due to Microsoft’s recent announcement of Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress (with a follow-up showing at MIX10). It was literally one month ago that the company was extolling the possibilities and benefits of its completely rethought OS, a ground-up, reboot effort from the Windows Mobile team. An OS which taps into the Zune ecosystem, plays Xbox Live games, is built around the concept of social networking integration (sound familiar?), will have rich apps and great options for developers, and is built for state-of-the-art hardware. So, how does the company move from its halo mobile devices to the Kin and have it make any kind of sense? From high-end, iPhone-stomping phones, to two devices which are seriously under-spec’d (4GB, really guys?), severely lacking in services (no apps? no calendar?), and questionably designed (uh, the Turtle). How does this make sense for Microsoft, and more importantly, the consumer? Is the Kin customer the people featured in the brand’s advertising – scruffy, savvy, urban twenty-somethings who love technology but don’t want technology to get in the way of having a good time – or is it for someone else entirely? And is that the point?
It is confusing, and frankly, dumb that Microsoft would do this so quickly after announcing Windows Phone 7 — which hasn’t even shipped yet. While Apple may be stretched too thin, Microsoft just seems schizophrenic.