Obituary: MS dumps Kin phone after 2 months

When I saw the first TV ads for the Kin, I was intrigued by its attempt at cloud computing, seamless syncing, and winning the Gen-X crowd.

Still, it always makes for painful watching when Microsoft tries to be "cool." One imagines Bill Gates in his plaid shirt trying to boogie.

The early reviews pointed out enormous gaps in the device, and (oops) the fact it only connects at 15-minute intervals:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194262/the_curious_thing_about_microsoft_kin.html

After MS killed it after just two months, the Wall Street Journal's obituary noted confusion over its purpose and the high usage fees:

http://online.wsj.com/video/digits-mossberg-on-microsoft-kin-demise/44138782-3925-4F33-A15C-A7B6CA9BF860.html?KEYWORDS=Kin+mobile+phone

Now MS is trumpeting their upcoming "Windows Phone 7" and hoping all the people who got stuck with these orphan Kims will just go quietly into the night.

And paradoxically, after all their failures in this specialized market, their plan is to even be more rigid at trying to fob a "Windows" experience onto the user:

According to Microsoft, hardware partners will not be able to replace the Windows 7 UI. So if you're a fan of HTC's TouchFLO user interface, which runs over older versions of HTC Windows Mobile phones, you're out of luck.

Will they become competitive this time around? Consider words of wisdom from MS head Steve Ballmer in the past:

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

Ballmer on the iPhone

""We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general purpose device," he summarized. "You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is."

Ballmer on the iPhone