Microsoft Kin – Problem and Solution - SYSM 6309 - Summer 2013
August 3, 2013
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Microsoft Kin – Problem and Solution
SYSM 6309 - Summer 2013
INDIVIDUAL PROJECT PAPER
SUBMISSION DATE: AUGUST 3, 2013
Prepared by: Arun Perumb Krishnan
UTD Id: 20211 54585
Professor: Dr.Lawrance Chung
Microsoft Kin – Problem and Solution - SYSM 6309 - Summer 2013
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Table of Contents
1
Background and Overview .................................................................................................................... 3
1.1
2
3
4
5
6
MicroSoft Kin Background and Overview ....................................................................................................3
MicroSoft Kin......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1
MicroSoft Kin Development .........................................................................................................................3
2.2
MicroSoft Kin – Project Investment .............................................................................................................4
2.3
MicroSoft Kin – Launch ................................................................................................................................4
MicroSoft Kin – Problem and Failure .................................................................................................... 4
3.1
MicroSoft Kin – Problem ..............................................................................................................................4
3.2
MicroSoft Kin – Failure .................................................................................................................................5
MicroSoft Kin – Problem Analysis ......................................................................................................... 5
4.1
MicroSoft Kin – Market Scenario during the Kin development and launch time frame ..............................5
4.2
MicroSoft Kin – Focus Test Group Opinion ..................................................................................................6
4.3
MicroSoft Kin – Customer Opinions .............................................................................................................6
MicroSoft Kin – Soultion Recommendations ........................................................................................ 7
5.1
Soultion Recommendations – Avoid Development delays ..........................................................................7
5.2
Soultion Recommendations – Avoid Project Competency...........................................................................7
5.3
Soultion Recommendations – Importance to Non-Functional Requirements .............................................8
5.4
Soultion Recommendations – Better Pricing Strategy .................................................................................8
References ............................................................................................................................................ 8
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1 Background and Overview
1.1 Microsoft Kin Background and Overview
Kin was a mobile handset developed by Microsoft during 2010. The Kin project idea came when
Microsoft acquired a Palo Alto, California based software company called Danger Inc during February
2008. Danger Inc was specialized in hardware design, software and services for mobile devices. One of
the Danger mobile handset products Sidekick was the first cloud-based Smartphone with the App
marketplace. Microsoft acquired Danger Inc for a price around $500 million.
Kin was a failure product from Microsoft. This project describes the problems Microsoft Kin faced in the
market and some of the solutions which could have prevented the failure of the Microsoft Kin.
2 Microsoft Kin
2.1 Microsoft Kin Development
Kin project was first known as ‘Project Pink’. The main intention of Kin project was to develop a mobile
handset from Microsoft which has some built-in applications to access the social networking media like
Twitter, Facebook and Myspace to target at teens and social networking addicts.
Picture 1: Microsoft Kin
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2.2 Microsoft Kin – Project Investment
Kin’s development was inside Microsoft’s Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) division based on WinCE.
The development of Kin platform took around 2 years and the total project investment was US $1
billion. The additional investment for the project is the acquisition of Danger Inc by Microsoft in
February 2008 for $500 million.
2.3 Microsoft Kin – Launch
Microsoft announced about their product Kin on April 10th, 2010. They launched two Kin models Kin
ONE and Kin TWO and made available on Verizon Wireless stores on May 13th, 2010.
Picture 2: Kin ONE and Kin TWO
3 Microsoft Kin – Problem and Failure
3.1 Microsoft Kin – Problem
Some of the missing features in the Microsoft Kin were the following:
No Instant messaging

No Visual Voicemail

No photo editing options

No Calendar or appointment application
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The additional missing functionalities of the Microsoft Kin were:
No additional Apps can be downloaded like any other smart phone

No extra options or downloads possible

Once shot, pictures cannot be edited – only shared or stored

Videos recorded with camcorder have no sound, can only be deleted not edited once captured
3.2 Microsoft Kin – Failure
The Microsoft Kin became a failure within two months of its actual launch date. Verizon stopped selling
the Kin phones due to poor sales. Verizon returned all the unsold phones to Microsoft. Microsoft
scrapped the Kin’s Europe release due to the poor sales in US market. They also stopped promoting the
Kin devices and ceased production. Microsoft also transferred the Kin development team to join its
Windows Phone developers.
4 Microsoft Kin – Problem Analysis
4.1 Microsoft Kin – Market Scenario during the Kin development and launch
time frame
Below details some of the Market conditions during the time frame 2007 till the 2010 which interests
the smart phone industry market:
January 9th 2007 – Steve Jobs announced iPhone (First Generation)

June 29th 2007 – The first iPhone released

Apple released iPhone 1st Gen, 3G and 3GS before the Kin launch

MS released Kin on:- May 13th 2010

Apple released iPhone 4 on June 2010

Also beginning of 2010 Google released Nexus One phones from HTC
Kin phones were overshadowed by the iPhone and Android Phones during the time of launch in 2010.
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4.2 Microsoft Kin – Focus Test Group Opinion
Below are some of the observations and comments from the Focus test group’s regarding Microsoft Kin
before the Kin release:
Focus testers struggled with phone’s interface

Issues were present on basic functionality like making calls

Some of the opinions from the focus testers before Kin release:
““The phone seems to be really slow in responding … and that makes it confused as to
what it was doing”

“the phone was so unresponsive, it had a hard time registering a simple phone
number.”

“lots of room to improve I think … especially since I don’t have a touch phone right now,
even so I think coming to a touch phone like this is kind of a turnoff.. I think the biggest
frustration I have is whether it’s the lag, or whether it’s my actual touch [causing
problems]…”
The focus test groups were not satisfied about the Microsoft product features and the product was
having issues during the focus test.
4.3 Microsoft Kin – Customer Opinions
Below are some of the opinions from the Kin customers after their purchase of the handset from
Verizon Wireless in US market:
“I wouldn't say satisfied. I have a Kin TwoM, and it's a piece of crap. Not quite as laggy as the
focus test videos show, but still noticeably bad. The camera, however, is just as bad as they say.”

“The HD video feature is unusable because it locks up constantly for a couple seconds at a time
while recording.”

“I'd love to upgrade to a WP handset (my Verizon upgrade period), but unfortunately, I can't pay
for the data plan.”
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The above comments clearly indicate that the customers were unhappy about the Kin features which
were faulty and the pricing were too above for a handset which does not provide much internet
features.
5 Microsoft Kin – Solution Recommendations
Some of the solution recommendations which could have avoided the Microsoft Kin failure are detailed
in the below subsections.
5.1 Solution Recommendations – Avoid Development delays
Two years is considered a significant development delay. Fasten the release date to beat the market
leaders in smart phone.
Below table shows the Apple iPhone versions and its release dates. The table shows that Apple took just
approximately one year for each of their subsequent releases to launch new features to make the
customer happy and attracted towards their smart phone device.
Apple iPhone versions
Release dates
iPhone – 1st generation
June 29th, 2007
iPhone – 3G
July 11th, 2008
iPhone – 3GS
June 19th, 2009
iPhone – 4
June 24th, 2010
5.2 Solution Recommendations – Avoid Project Competency
Kin’s development was inside Microsoft’s Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) which was a parallel
project to Windows Mobile Platform. Rather than two different platforms have one mobile platform for
a better quality product and to avoid:
Wastage of time

Wastage of resources

Wastage of money
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
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Conflicts between colleagues/Management
5.3 Solution Recommendations – Importance to Non-Functional
Requirements
Give importance to Non-functional requirements in relation to some of the functional requirements

Camera

HD Video recorder

Making calls
Also capture the functional and non-functional requirements to beat the existing smart phones and use
Change Requests to constantly update them through the development cycle.
5.4 Solution Recommendations – Better Pricing Strategy
Since the Kin uses the data network only for accessing limited social networking sites the data usage
would have been limited compared to the existing smart phones. The price of the data plan should have
been minimized compared to the other smart phone data plans to attract more teenagers and social
networking addicts
6 References
1) www.Wikipedia.org
2) http://www.mobiledia.com/phones/microsoft/kin-two.html
3) http://gizmodo.com/
4) http://images.google.com/
5) http://rdmanagement.blogspot.com/2010/07/r-portfolio-management-case-study.html
6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
7) http://bcgconsulting.blogspot.com/2011/01/failure-product-marketing-analysis.html
8) http://www.utdallas.edu/~chung/SYSM6309/syllabus.htm