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Microsoft Can’t Make Next Of KinJuly 1, 2010 – 4:20 pm |
 Abdul Fattah Ismail |
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Microsoft does certain things well. Microsoft does certain things poorly. Microsoft makes a strong effort at times, but lacks timing too. Less than two months after a heavy advertising campaign for the adolescent market, Microsoft will end sales of the Kin mobile. Members of the marketing and development push will be folded into a campaign push for the Windows 7 mobile phone, due in October. The company never issued an official statement, but many feel that the price points for Kin One and Two were just not fitting the public demand. According to Ad Age, the Kin One was priced at $49.99 while the Kin Two was $99.99 after rebates of $100. A mandatory $30 monthly service fee didn’t help matters.
One could look at the quick abortion as a cautionary tale of investing too heavily into niche markets with social media as the backbone of your initiative. Microsoft Kin used a woman in her twenties to connect through viral heavyweights from My Space to Windows Live. But the phones were also lacking in traditional smartphone features, such as application use, calendar scheduling, and so forth. Everyone loves to share wayward thoughts and images in real time, conscious and unconscious, without fear of persecution, which is an illusion anyway. These actions are an innate human right, and social media lets us pursue it to the fullest.
Those who contribute professionally to society need software to structure themselves, such as e-mail and calendars. These tools allow for the opportunity to interface personally with one another, maintaining some semblance of human interaction and exchange of creative spirit. Then, and only then, will our pursuit of perfect communication reach a zenith.
Social media has taken our world by storm, spreading information with lightning speed, but it does not have the wherewithal to stand alone as a representative of our human persona, and it probably never will do this. Microsoft’s Kin was a testament to this reality check.
