Ballmer: KIN “just defocused activity from Windows Phone”

September 28, 2010 | By Surur

Microsoft intends to be bold, in smartphones and other areas.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has spoken to Seattle Times about various Microsoft industries, including Windows Phone 7 and the ill-fated KIN phones.

Noting that boldness was the company’s strategy, also going forward, he also made it clear they did not expect to reap the financial rewards from Windows phone 7 very soon.

“You put aside the questions of how you make money and blah, blah, blah. That’s all interesting in the long run. In the short run (claps his hands and rubs them together), people gotta want these phones. I think they’re going to look pretty good. … If we start the popularity chain and start kind of the buzz around these things, we’ll be able to make some money off them.”

The statement likely alludes the the expected gigantic and hugely expensive advertising campaign the company is rumoured to be preparing, with estimates ranging into the $400 million or more.

Ballmer also did not express much regret for the passing of the KIN, claiming it distracted the company from Windows Phone 7.

The No. 1 message from Kin is a message of focus. You only get so many things you can really talk about, communicate, work on with the consumer. You’ve got to be bold, you’ve got to look forward and you’ve got to stay focused. Kin was neither — with 20-20 hindsight — bold enough relative to where the market’s going, and it just defocused activity from Windows Phone.

One wonder what bold moves Microsoft plans for the future, both in Windows Phone 7 and other areas. Do our readers have any suggestions for the company? Let us know below.

Thanks Mobile Paddy for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged kin, microsoft, Steve Ballmer, windows phone 7

djguapo

I would have liked to have heard Ballmer talk about what happens to KIN users now, especially their well-deserved update. What happened to mid-summer? We're officially in fall now!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=746307628 Ricardo Dawkins

Hey, guapo.
Welcome to Zune land…. jaja
http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

Hey Ballmer, according to some expert posters on this forum, if MS doesn't provide copy and paste and multitasking at launch it's game over.

Time to change your plans big guy.
OOOO

ballmers doing everything correct. not much suggestions to offer…

and to the guy above: copy and paste isnt a dealbreaker. multitasking isnt a dealbreaker. most people dont give a flying fuck about it.
http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

I think you need to read my post over big guy..lol I was being sarcastic. Notice I said "according to some experts on this forum".

And I am one of those who don't give a flying eff about those features either.
plost99

remember that copy and paste is coming so that leaves multitasking. If Microsoft is smart they allow multitasking for apps that request it,(they will need to go through extra certification). The Pause/resume model should work for most things except music playback, gps apps
Lennard

I'm all curious at as to what is going to happen now that Microsoft seems to understand regular customer now and not just the enterprise
plost99

I am sure Kin ate at least 2 months from the schedule. Had a bad feeling about it from the beginning
l3v5y

It isn't game over. It just gives Engadget something to hate.
l3v5y

As far as I know, that's where things will end up, they just won't be like that yet.
chinch

going but FCC leaks KIN was due to ship last holiday (fall 2009) as a stopgap feature phone bridging WM6 to WP7. The timing makes sense as Droid was an unknown (and pretty much a fail at Verizion before the moto droid phone & $150mil ad campaign).

The only thing KIN cost WP7 was bad press by opening doors for the vocal minority of MS bashers to stomp and shout like toddlers with attention deficit.
http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

Now that was funny!! +1
majg

… and it wasted more than $500 million Danger aquisition.
chinch

that is tip money for MS. a small percent of it's yearly profit.

Lets keep it real.

Plus you don't know what IPs were acquired with Danger. HP paid 6x more in the last year for two left-for-dead dead companies and people didn't hate on HP.
chinch

that is tip money for MS. a small percent of it's yearly profit.

Lets keep it real.

Plus you don't know what IPs were acquired with Danger. HP just paid 6x more in the last year for two left-for-dead dead companies and people didn't hate on HP.
imtheredude

Here's a suggestion, please leak more phones sporting at least 16GB of storage. 32GB phones will make more people happy. If you are competing with the iPhone and Android at least get your handsets' storage capacity at par. A lot of the phones being leaked looked nice but the 8GB non expandable memory is a letdown. Please Stevie.
mark

It damaged their relationship with Verizon. It cost them the better part of Danger's $500 million. They took another $240 million write down, and I'm sure several hundred million of other costs got buried in R&D and elsewhere within E&D. Total cost probably around $1 billion, and two years effort of an entire team than could have been focused on making sure WP7 had things like C&P and multitasking. Overall, a very expensive mistake, even for a company the size of MS.
NuShrike

It was a necessary cutting. Just strange to do it so late, and dissolving Danger was worthwhile. Neither Danger's IP nor personnel is compatible with Wimpy7s, so simply call it a period of corporate insanity for MS.
Brianna

No wonder why nobody bought the iPhone and Apple went bankrupt.
Yevin

Go back and look at the news articles from the Kin announcement from April 12, 2010.

Microsoft clearly said that the Kins were "Windows Phones". Is Ballmer now saying that the Kins are not Windows Phones?
chinch

Damaged relationship with Verizon… um… citation needed please.

After KIN missed the 09 xmas deadliine AND motorola met their exclusive deadline Verizon simply doubled down on Droid. This was a no-brainer for the USA's #1 and CDMA carrier.

Verizon knew well in advance three absolute business certanties: #1. it wasn't getting iPhone anytime soon and #2. WM was being rebooted late 2010 maybe 2011. #3. Droid was a good bet/investment to combat iPhone/ATT & bolster their smartphone lineup for 2010.

So the only "relationship" that was hurt was that of fanboys with their imaginations.
Arash

Calling the Kin a "Windows Phone" was more of a ret-con on MS's part
Northerngeek

How is MistaWet getting downranked? The post is saturated in sarcasm. I chuckled
Northerngeek

I agree with Ballmer that Microsoft should stay focused, specifically not having two overlapping projects however in such a consumer orientated world they'll need to expand their device offerings sooner rather than later. Shame Courier got cancelled, but they need to be thinking about the TV and tablets again as well as phones obviously.
0oO

The media player (Zune) can play music in the background, i.e. the only thing needed is a plugin and codec model/API for the media player so that the media player can fetch music from additional sources and can decode addtional file formats. The media player will then continue to play music streams even when an app is paused. The app only needs to be resumed (by the user) if he wants to select another stream, … For the user it looks like the application was running all the time in the background.

The location information is managed by the Location Service and the only thing that needs to be changed is a queueing mechanism that stores location information for paused apps. If an app is resumed it can the fetch all the location updates since it has been paused. For the user it looks like the application was running all the time in the background.

In both use cases no 3rd party background processing is needed.
mark

Agree. In fact it should never have shipped. Instead the best parts, like Studio, should have been put into WP7 to further differentiate it and enhance its appeal.

The period of corporate insanity at MS seems to have stretched from 2000-2010. After a while you have to call it a condition and not a temporary spell.
mark

They pulled the rug out from under Kin with their data pricing plans, causing MS to dump the product in record time and incur a huge charge for unsold inventory (not to mention the embarrassment of another high profile failure). That isn’t the sign of a healthy relationship, and certainly looks like payback for MS blowing the deadline. Now they're not shipping a WP7 device at launch despite that being widely expected, and have only said "maybe" to having one in 2011. Again, not a sign of healthy relationship. Finally, they've been forced to comment on the relationship due to widespread speculation that it was damaged:

"Verizon downplayed any possible strain between themselves and Redmond: “our relationship with Microsoft is solid.”

So yeah, I think it's safe to say what I did. And I'm not a fanboy one way or the other.
chinch

logic & fact finding doesn't seem to be a priority for you.

No CDMA (bone-headed move by MS) means no sprint/verizon in 2010 for WP7. Why would Verizon announce something now and undercut products for the next 6 months that they are heavily invested & advertising… ROTFLMAO.

Kin was late and thus still born. Contractually they might have been better served releasing it (one carrier only)… it also could simply have been a parallel project or backup plan in case WP7 was going to be delayed in to 2011. By Feb when WP7 was announced it was clear KIN already missed a sales season and was nothing but an unnecessary distraction.

Either way verizon, Sharp and MS were firmly on board with KIN before it's obvious delay.

To say MS or Verizon sabotaged KIN or an "unhealthy relationship" caused it's removal from marketplace is nothing short of fanboy (non)logic.
mark

Ballmer is the person who greenlighted two competing projects and was one of two executive sponsors for Kin.
mark

Ignoring facts that happen to contradict your preexisting opinions seems to be a priority for you.