Questions raised over Microsoft's Kin

[Tinybolt]

What an ugly phone :< may appeal to certain markets though.

 

[Cliffc]

The Kin may not be as dumb as you think...

Most people won't know that the Kin is descended from a company called Danger (look at www.danger.com). They designed the Sidekick phones sold by T-Mobile in the USA and made by Sharp (who also make the Kin). The Sidekick was the 'Hollywood phone' with actors like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz etc owning them plus bling versions owned by Paris Hilton. The 16-25-year old non-techie market loved them.

The Sidekick still has the very best keyboard in world. I know because my company spent 3 years trying to bring the Sidekick to SA. We did trials with one of the networks. The 19-21 year olds who got trial phones here swooned with delight and threatened not to give them back! It never launched locally for complex reasons, but there is not doubt that the recipe worked for younger users.

MS bought Danger and the Kin is the result. I haven't played with it yet and I don't know if it will work but the Danger guys may still make a hit for Microsoft. I've always hated the Windows phones - anything would be better.

As a final note, the original CTO of Danger is the fellow who started Android, which was then bought my Google. He, Andy Rubin, now runs their Android division. It's a small cellphone world!

I think the author of article should have researched it a bit more before slating the new phones.