Microsoft pulls the plug on Kin

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Microsoft pulls the plug on Kin

Barely two months after its release, Microsoft has pulled the plug on its "Kin" smartphone.

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 reorganized consumer product unit.

The "Kin One" and "Kin Two" phones, which both feature touch-screens and slide-out keyboards, were being manufactured by Japan's Sharp and were made available in the United States through Verizon Wireless in May.

Microsoft’s consumer products unit has struggled to offer a credible competitors to Apple’s iPod and more recently the iPhone and an array of smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.

Kin's development team will join the mobile group that's working on the Windows Phone 7 operating system, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is replacing top executives at its gaming and mobile devices division, which has stumbled in the smart-phone and tablet computer markets.

(June 30, 2010)