Microsoft today confirmed that it has stopped work on its recently unveiled KIN phones. The KIN One and KIN Two were unveiled in April and were to have gone on sale in Europe after their debut with Verizon. The KIN team will be reassigned to work on Windows Phone 7 which will be released later this year. According to Microsoft:
“We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.”
While Microsoft did not provide a reason for the decision, it is almost surely due to poor sales with rumours that the KIN devices sold less than 10,000 units since going on sale. Verizon will continue to sell the KIN but has already cut the price of the two devices.
The KIN devices were born out of Microsoft’s 2008 acquisition of Sidekick maker Danger.