Microsoft Kin - The 48 Day Smartphone Fiasco (A Retrospective)

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Microsoft is no stranger to the world of mobile devices. They've been creating mobile operating systems for years. But today we're going to discuss a product that never saw massive success. A product that was only available for 48 days before being discontinued by Microsoft. This is the story of the Microsoft Kin.
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www.engadget.com/2010-07-02-l...
www.wired.com/2010/05/pr-micr...
www.mobiletechreview.com/phon...
www.computerworld.com/article...
www.engadget.com/2010-11-18-k...
www.phonedog.com/2011/08/27/v...
web.archive.org/web/2010040714...
web.archive.org/web/2010041617...
www.t-mobile.com/brand/sidekick
www.wired.com/2005/02/known-h...
www.engadget.com/2010-06-30-m...
news.softpedia.com/news/Veriz...
web.archive.org/web/2010061121...
www.engadget.com/2010-12-11-k...
mashable.com/2010/05/05/micro...
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Пікірлер: 646

@krnelpanic_ 4 жыл бұрын

The phone that was discontinued before the warranty would expire

@gilberttheregular8553 4 жыл бұрын

yes

@rebert_reid 3 жыл бұрын

Free lifetime warranty!

@Oblivion5367 3 жыл бұрын

@Uriel Oakley you shouldn't do that.

@weegeenumberone2 3 жыл бұрын

@Uriel Oakley Scam.

@toyrobot4504 3 жыл бұрын

@Uriel Oakley the joined 2 weeks ago gives it away

@Redrumm 4 жыл бұрын

I worked at Verizon when the KIN launched, I remember me and my coworkers trying to hold back the laughs while the Microsoft rep tried to demo it to us. The KIN One had the most un-intuitive interface I've ever seen. Simple things like making a call or even sending a text was stupidly convoluted.

@gordons-alive4940 2 ай бұрын

It wasn't capable of texting, I thought. Video said so.

@Zippomon 4 жыл бұрын

I can't believe this was released in 2010... the year the iPhone 4 came out. This was an obsolete, garbage phone the day it was released.

@robtyman4281 4 жыл бұрын

It basically came out about four years too late! Microsoft should have released it in around 2006. The moment Apple released the first generation iphone in late 2007, the Microsoft Kin was doomed - it was never going to sell. Apple made them look silly, while Android had killed off the Windows phones by the mid 10's. Windows phones couldn't compete with the versatility of iphones, or the customisation of android phones. The sad reality is that Microsoft have never really got into the phone/smartphone market and established themselves, because they simply haven't 'got' it in the first place. This is still the case today. Ever since Bill Gates left, Microsoft have been about three steps behind Apple, Google, and just about every other smartphone manufacturer you can think of.

@myes344 4 жыл бұрын

Is always like that 2 movies thats same story but 1 is good others...no so much. Or video games

@kens97sto171 4 жыл бұрын

@@robtyman4281 Yep you hit it right on the nail head. I don't know whether it's because Microsoft is a gigantic company and they're just slow moving internally, but they had failures with the zune also, they just really have never figured out mobile technology. I think they're smart at this point to have realized they should concentrate on things they were actually good at and leave the rest of it alone. Makes you kind of wonder at some point whether Apple or Google becomes so large that they also end up failing against some new upstart that has a better handle on what customers actually want and are quick enough to respond to those needs.

@robtyman4281 4 жыл бұрын

@@kens97sto171 I think we're about a year or two away from seeing this happen with Apple. Just as Microsoft haven't been the same since Bill Gates left, so Apple haven't been the same since Steve Jobs passed away. He made them an 'incredible' force, but since his death, Apple have kind of taken their eye off things as far as phones are concerned. Other companies have noticed this and taken advantage of it - most notably Google (the Android version of Apple basically!), and also Huawei. And now there's a new upstart in town, wowing people - One+ The iphone has basically 'stayed still' for the last four years. What was once cutting edge and far ahead of everyone else is now in danger of being left behind. Apple need to wake up fast.

@kens97sto171 4 жыл бұрын

@@robtyman4281 Apple has been asleep for a while. I think you're right about the creativity side of it leaving with Steve Jobs. But this has been true for a while, Apple remains incredibly profitable but I think it comes at the expense of innovation. That eventually will cause them some problems. Globally Android has the market share by a significant margin over 85% I believe. This is mostly because in developing countries no one's buying a $700 iPhone. And there are $50 Android phones out there that work. Android has its problems also, and Google doesn't things I don't particularly care for. Particularly privacy issues. But I've always been an Android guy mostly because I don't really like being told what to do with a piece of equipment that I have purchased. And when I got into smartphones in 2008, you could not even change the background or ringtone on an iPhone. My reaction to that was well you can just F off. Apple always seem to have the idea that we made the phone this way and you should just like it because it's perfect. And my reaction to that was the same lol Don't get me wrong again sometimes my Android phones do unexplainable weird things certainly don't have the stability of iOS especially in the early days. And I had days where I wanted to throw it across the room and smash it. But that has mostly been resolved at this point. Android as an operating system has become much much more stable and polished in the last several years. And yet retains the customizability that iOS still lacks. Although iOS has opened that up significantly since 2008. I always think of the Samsung advertisements that would come out. With all the iPhone fans waiting in line to buy the new iPhone talking about how this year we're going to get 4G, and some Samsung people standing nearby were like yeah we got that like 2 years ago. Or they iPhone people would be like hey we're getting a big screen this year and the Samsung people standing nearby or like yeah we got that 3 years ago. And this is the same situation you find with many of the now standard features. Wireless charging OLED displays, big screens, USB-C, removable storage, Etc. These are all things that Androids had years before iPhones.

@Marius98 4 жыл бұрын

I wonder why Microsoft didn't deliver the missed features like a calendar or app store with an update. The problems the customers had with the phone were actually only with the software. But instead of adding those features, they removed all the smartphone features and sold it as feature phone. Microsoft always was stupid!

@SuperSmashDolls 4 жыл бұрын

Don't blame Microsoft, blame Verizon, and perhaps the business practices of American cellular networks at the time. This is back when service providers strictly controlled what phones ran on their networks. The idea of just buying a phone and sticking a SIM card into it was completely unheard of - hell, for half of the networks out there, you didn't even *have* a SIM card slot at all, and the phone company was responsible for provisioning the phone to your account. Microsoft wanted to sell a cheap Sidekick killer for teenagers and needed Verizon to sell cheap data plans for them in order for the Kin to make any sense. They dumbed down the smartphone experience to something they thought Verizon would be fine with selling cheap data plans for. That didn't work, because they were stuck in the mindset of "if it can use data, it needs a data plan". That's why the featurephone versions exist: to convince Verizon to not charge an arm and a leg to use a $50 phone. If this still seems outlandish, remember: This is the same point in time where iPhones were permanently carrier-locked to AT&T with no unlock codes. Why? Well, because Apple wanted to sell an iPhone, not a Verizon Captivate powered by Apple, or an AT&T Inspire powered by Apple. The only company willing to let Apple sell their iPhone on their own terms and have it work on their network was Cingular, which happened to get bought up by AT&T mid-development.

@ajst22 4 жыл бұрын

@@SuperSmashDolls God, I don't miss the days of carrier exclusives and each manufacturer having a separately branded flagship for each carrier because of it. That, I believe, was one of the reasons for Windows Phone's demise. AT&T had all the great fun colorful Lumia models

@gajbooks 4 жыл бұрын

My family actually owned some of the Kin phones as we were on Verizon. You would think the only issues were software, but you would be wrong. The touch screens were irritating at best, the keyboard was cramped and too small, and the camera inevitably got unremovable dust between the lens and the outer plastic shell, not to mention the pictures looked worse than a several year old LG Dare.

@BiohazardX9 4 жыл бұрын

@@SuperSmashDolls I learn't something there. Thankyou. in the UK it always was a case of simcards, We got data a little later than the US but was always a Simcard. sure for us the hurdle was (and still is largely for weaker phones) the whole carrier lockout. Today though most high end phones are not locked down (my note10 from O2 bought from O2 store isn't carrier locked, just a customised google play store which has extra buttons that relate to O2 apps). It's a shame, I like android but original windows mobile 6, 2005, even 2003 were actually very useable. I had a Jornada 928 running WM2002. and despite it being large ish, it ran as a phone perfectly ontop of a PDA. I had all my tools for calendar etc and as a student found I could do stuff on the go nas I had one of them targus pocket keyboards for it. I feel today phones seem to only care about how many lenses you can put on the camera and idiot proofing the system. Great post though

@thebombsauce 4 жыл бұрын

I think the OS was barely functional and hard to work with, otherwise they probably would've updated it with more shit. Esp when most "15-30 year olds" would have at least an iPod touch by now which ran circles around this thing in every possible way.

@TheCoprunner 4 жыл бұрын

i had a kin one M when i was going into high school as my parents didnt want to pay for a data plan. i quickly found out how you could flash the kin one M to run the kin one full os, as the M versions had some limitations over the non M version. once i did so all data was lost on the phone but it ran the full original kin os and to my surprise i was able to get data on it. no apps or hotspot but i soon found out that i wasnt being charged for data on the phone, i loved my kin one and used it for almost 2 years before getting a palm pixi with data plan, the entire time i used the kin one m i didnt get charged for one bit of data. i was shocked and frankly still am. haha

@Maverick_Dewitt 4 жыл бұрын

Duuude, I tooo had the One M high schoool, but I never realized that I could've reconfigured the OS to the original software; that would've beeen reallly nice to know. It's also prettty coincidental because sooon after my brother broke my One M (long story), I replaced it with the Palm Pixi as welll! By far, two of my favorite phones I've ever had. They definitely weren't the best, but they were quirky and memorable.

@TheCoprunner 4 жыл бұрын

@@Maverick_Dewitt I sat by a kind in band class that had the palm pre and was amazed I didn't get the pre instead but I really loved my pick, by far one of my top 3 phones I've had and that's quite a few haha. I rooted it and installed preware to get free hotspot and overclock it to run a bit faster. It was an awesome phone. If palm came back today with a similar Android phone I would 100% switch to it!

@Maverick_Dewitt 4 жыл бұрын

@@TheCoprunner You know, they tried to reintroduce the Palm recently on Verizon. I was super tempted to purchase it, but didn't cave in case it wasn't as chalked up as it was suppposed to be. For me, the nostalgia was beholden in the size of the phone and the various novel appps that I used, like this paint appp that showcased it's users' works. I stilll remember the first time I got featured, and it was just the cooolest.

@rogehmarbi 4 жыл бұрын

That sounds like a similar situation with my house (long stretch I know). Once my house was struck by lightning. It blew some kind of fuse and it stopped recording my power usage. I went for almost 3 years without paying a single cent for electricity, even my friends told me I should go and jump into mining crypto. It had to end though. We were moving and planned to open the house for renting. Due to, things, we had to fix the situation. Luckily, we were only charged $15 for the repair. If they knew about the 3 years thing we'd be screwed

@thedave1771 2 жыл бұрын

Nice find. It’s probably like the cellular Kindles, where you’re technically on Amazon’s contract and they negotiate whatever wholesale agreement they want with the various carriers. Microsoft probably had something like this for the Kin, where all Kin devices included data. Cute that they neglected to segregate the Kin One M, but not surprising given that it was software limited. Fun bit of history, thanks!

@EricE549 4 жыл бұрын

as mrwhosetheboss explained why it failed: "no apps, priced like an iphone."

@etekweb 3 жыл бұрын

I mean, the first iPhone didn't have apps either..

@EricE549 3 жыл бұрын

@@etekweb true

@callowaymotorcompany 3 жыл бұрын

@@etekweb Then they should have released it at the same time as the first iphone.

@RedFire998 3 жыл бұрын

@@etekweb it did have apps, but it took a software patch to get third party apps and App Store in the phone. It did have web apps before that too.

@alexwr 2 жыл бұрын

So, just like every other mobile device windows has tried?

@Stryker2279 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I had a kin. Was my first "smartphone" courtesy of my folks. Was a travesty.

@nanohitmen 4 жыл бұрын

Same here had the Kin 2. I'll grant it that it was smooth for email and texting. Not much else.

@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley 4 жыл бұрын

I worked at Verizon around that time and often had parents chat in online asking about a smartphone-like phone for their kids without the hefty data plan. I recommended a lot of people the Kin phones 😂 Sorry. I was happy when I instead began to work in customer service and not sales (though that's because Verizon, the greedy bastards, wanted to slash our pay to minimim wage and we would get the rest on commission. Customer service got to keep their regular pay though.)

@Stryker2279 4 жыл бұрын

@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley so it was you!

@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley 4 жыл бұрын

@@Stryker2279 Yes, it was I, Dio--er, Fluffymiyster!

@mdgnys 4 жыл бұрын

I had a kin as well, due to the fact that it was a "smartphone" without a data plan.

@albaformiga7932 4 жыл бұрын

Imagine buying an smartphone only to it turn into a feature phone after a couple of months. At least Verizon allowed people who bought it trade it in

@CaseySexton 4 жыл бұрын

You've increased your editing quality and it's showing! This has always been one of my favorite channels so the uptick in quality is just a bonus imho.

@MichaelMJD 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Casey! : )

@caviar_dreamz 4 жыл бұрын

Remember they promoted it with “It’s a smartphone that’s a dumb phone!” I thought that was such a stupid concept. Shame what happened to a Danger.

@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep 4 жыл бұрын

"One of them was Andy Rubin" My face instantly went into Yikes Mode.

@PhrAntoine 4 жыл бұрын

I remember working at MS and the devs on Project Pink/ the Kin were so excited. Maybe if they were so secretive with the product employees could have told them to stop

@lukemahanes9935 4 жыл бұрын

I remember I got the the Kin Onem as my first phone when I was in 5th grade. I used to think the UI was so cool and had a lot of fun downloading music and videos and taking photos on it. I think my older brother got the Twom as well but it broke in less than a week so he got something else. Crazy that I was one of the 9,000 that bought it, will always hold a special place in my heart.

@ChrisHarwick 4 жыл бұрын

I had a Kin Two M! It was a really cool feature phone! I still have it and the weird cylindrical box it came in.

@basurerodej8501 4 жыл бұрын

Please do an overview of WXP 64 bit, it has a weird history

@sosopwsi829Jjw9 4 жыл бұрын

YESSSS

@FrezzyYT 4 жыл бұрын

Neil Degrasse Tyson is not a instrument

@arnob1711 4 жыл бұрын

@@FrezzyYT *An

@randomdude1053 4 жыл бұрын

Anything XP related makes me happy 😃

@_lun4r_ 4 жыл бұрын

@@MaoTao Not Funny Didn't Laugh

@fbaldassarri 4 жыл бұрын

You forget the Nokia N9 (the first MeeGo smartphone): discontinued DURING the launch press conference event.

@dmora2309 3 жыл бұрын

I remember being in a shop and ask for the newest iPhone (I think was the iPhone 4) and the seller recommended that phone and argued it was way better than anything else I knew he was wrong, perhaps the hardware in the N9 was impressive both the software and the services were inferior and Symbian was a dead end.

@akhyarrayhka4048 4 жыл бұрын

Microsoft were drinking their own spit, they can be more successful if the exec weren't so arrogant and greedy.

@StevenSmyth 4 жыл бұрын

My kid had a Kin in use for about 18 months and when he got a Samsung phone, I put the phone back in the box. I still have it along with the headphones, wall wart, extra battery, and all the paperwork. He used the hell out of it but was smart enough to back up all his photos from the phone to his laptop. His friends all had dumb phones so he never used AIM or Twitter he just texted with them. He only uses Tumblr and Facebook now, if ever.

@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley 4 жыл бұрын

I worked for Verizon in online chat between 2010 and 2013 and remember what I guess was the KinM versions. The reviews on it were abysmal, but parents wanted their kids to have a phone with a touch screen and keyboard, but not the $30 per phone unlimited internet plan. There weren't really any other options back then so I did recommend that terrible phone a lot, lol. Interestingly enough, it would be working there that would finally coax me out of my snobbishness of smartphones and how I felt I didnt need one. I had the LG Rumor and the LG Rumor Touch from Sprint, but when you're surrounded by all this new knowledge of the tech world, it's going to pique your curiosity. The smartphone variation of the Motorola Razr came out at $0.01 for new Verizon customers and was hyped as a big deal...and it sort of was, for the time. Can't remember the specs, but it was a behemoth of a phone for battery life, camera strength and storage for the time (and then three months after I got mine, they came out with the Razr Maxx with an even longer battery life 🙄.)Hearing that "Droooid!" when it started up, knowing it was only through Verizon, the priciest of carriers, made me feel kinda big, lol! Ahh...and then I upgraded to the Galaxy S4, billed it to my account, couldn't make the payments and then ditched Verizon and still owe them like $450 😂. Story of my life.

@rlt422 3 жыл бұрын

I worked for Verizon Wireless when the KIN was released. ALL of us in the tech support floor took one look at the KIN 1 and the future KIN 2 and instantly knew it would die a harsh death... our predictions were right LOL

@ayanosugiura3882 4 жыл бұрын

Interesting video. I'd also like to see an overview on Windows backgrounds too, as Bliss has an interesting story.

@tristontherailfan 4 жыл бұрын

Latitude: 38.2492 Longitude: -122.4101

@thebasketballhistorian3291 4 жыл бұрын

I've seen 2 videos about Bliss done by other KZfaqrs pop up on my feed. The story has been told already.

@ayanosugiura3882 4 жыл бұрын

@@thebasketballhistorian3291 True, but I meant a video covering the history behind the wallpapers in general, covering the stories behind other wallpapers like Azul and Autumn, how Microsoft chose them, and cases where they actually hired photographers. (also some new details have been uncovered about Bliss ever since those videos were made)

@lawrencedoliveiro9104 4 жыл бұрын

6:52 In other words, it was a major step back in functionality compared to the original Hiptop range.

@stevef6392 4 жыл бұрын

Ah, the Ballmer days.

@V1VISECT6 3 жыл бұрын

*J U S T 9 9 D O L L A R S*

@colejohnson66 3 жыл бұрын

@@V1VISECT6 C A N Y O U B E L I E V E I T!? *REVERSI*

@EpicB 3 жыл бұрын

DEVELOPERS

@shockwaveexp3465 4 жыл бұрын

I have a relative that had a KIN, it was very slow. You could watch KZfaq videos on this thing but only at 240p or lower...

@colejohnson66 3 жыл бұрын

Well, was there a point to viewing a higher quality stream (besides bit rate)? The Kin ONE/ONEm had a 320x240 screen...

@kevin34ct 4 жыл бұрын

My first "smart phone" was a Handspring Visor Prism with the cellular cartridge plugin. The Visor was basically a color Palm Pilot. It had all the features of a Palm Pilot with color, including some games. If you got the cellular addon cartridge, you could turn the Visor into a cell phone. The way to get cellular data on the phone was to call up an isp and the phone connection would connect as a modem for up to 28.8Kbps speed. You could use email, instant messenger and anything else that needed data at that time (no music or video). If the phone rang, you could switch it like call waiting, but I usually got disconnected from my isp. I was using an ISP that only cost me $9.99 a month unlimited data. The owner of the company I used was surprised how I was using it and loved the idea. It was a great gadget for it's time. I was using this in 2000 to 2002.

@ThatDudeArvai 4 жыл бұрын

I actually got one of these phones. The Kin Two M. At the time it was offered as a “basic” phone that didn’t need a data package for all of $20. I had it for about two years and honestly, it wasn’t bad as just a phone for texting. I could still use the radio function, it had a decent camera, and had 8GB of onboard storage. Finally junior year in high school I snapped it in half after the screen stopped working. The only issues I had was the phone would factory reset itself every now and again erasing everything.

@AaronRedding 4 жыл бұрын

I worked a verizon when the kin came out and sold probably 3 of them a day ... it wasnt a bad phone but had horribly flawed software

@bfums 4 жыл бұрын

Oh man. I had a kin for 2 years. It was a pretty enjoyable phone coming from a feature phone before

@y.bowcat7782 4 жыл бұрын

the lack of messaging features is crazy to me, at the time this came out I had an LG Rumor 2 on Virgin Mobile and it had a client for MSN/Aim/ICQ. I got it for 40 dollars on sale with no contract, how do you justify that feature being missing on a smart phone?

@19DMartinez98 4 жыл бұрын

I had the twom, I don’t blame my mom for it getting me that instead of a more expensive droid. But i was fairly happy with it. I didn’t mind the zune part it was one of the best features. And the camera was really good at the time too. I miss phones that have the keyboard on it to this day. If Microsoft wasn’t stupid this could have been as popular as the 360

@FantomLightning 3 жыл бұрын

What has me shooketh is seeing Sydney's name on a phone dog article. I miss the good old days of PhoneDog.

@Psyrecx 4 жыл бұрын

Windows Mobile still existed on some phones in the late 2000s. One of which was a huge step forward in smartphones. Being that it was the first non-Apple capacitive touchscreen phone, and could run Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Android.

@gajbooks 4 жыл бұрын

Windows Mobile was actually an amazing OS. My first "smartphone" was a Windows CE 5 phone which wa not amazingly fast but it actually had some pretty dang good apps and great compatibility. Much better than any phone OS Microsoft has released after it. You downloaded apps as EXE files, and you had a literal Start menu. Only worked with the stylus, but it was way better than most phones at the time. Still, the iPod 4G converted me out of my ignorance.

@Psyrecx 4 жыл бұрын

@@gajbooks My first smartphone was as well, The HD2.

@yukisaitou5004 4 жыл бұрын

The HP Touchpad also comes to mind as a device which had promise but was killed off way too soon. Have you considered doing a video on the history of WebOS?

@bookshelffury 4 жыл бұрын

Is the blacklight on yours dead or something? I only see a faint picture on the screen

@kyleburns9439 4 жыл бұрын

The screen on the one I had did slowly fade away until it was totally off and useless. Replaced the phone and it happened again even quicker if I remember right. So guessing that's his issue.

@paulheap1982 4 жыл бұрын

Well, it was being held at an angle with light glaring on it.

@bookshelffury 4 жыл бұрын

I just noticed i said blacklight instead of backlight lol whoops

@RingoBuns 3 жыл бұрын

Every time I think of old phones I think back to my LG Quantum... it was legit one of the best phones I’ve ever had. Streamlined, stable, good UI, slide out keyboard, and it just FELT nice. Yknow? Like holding a smooth stone made perfectly for your hands. What I would give to have a modern equivalent of that phone today

@lawrencedoliveiro9104 4 жыл бұрын

0:17 Windows Mobile and Windows Phone had nothing more in common than the “Windows” part of the name. I guess this is why marketing departments remain employed, because they can make you believe in technological connections that don’t exist.

@daemonspudguy 4 жыл бұрын

Windows Phone 7 was based on CE, that's why you can't update it to 8.

@EdwardMillen 4 жыл бұрын

And when Windows Mobile 6.5 came out, they rebranded it as Windows Phone 6.5 instead... just for extra confusion (I thought Windows Phone 7 was the point where everything changed and it lost all backwards compatibility with older versions though? Did they do that again with 8? I never used it myself, I jumped to Android after 6.5)

@daemonspudguy 4 жыл бұрын

@@EdwardMillen nope. That was 8

@muhammaddaniel9238 3 жыл бұрын

@Lucas Zhu wrong.

@minogamesfan9203 3 жыл бұрын

@Lucas Zhu this OS was based on Windows Phone OS.

@EdnipFrostbeard 4 жыл бұрын

Duuude I had the Kin 2m in middleschool! I loved and still miss the keyboard. It was so fun to type on in class under the desk. I haven't been able to hit the same WPM I had since :(

@BryanEnsign 4 жыл бұрын

Fantastic video. I loved the sidekicks slide I had, and was dissapointed to see the kin never become available as I knew it. I worked in the cell phone industry for a long time, long ago. It brings really great nostalgia to see videos on things like this. Sadly Microsoft has a track record of coming up with great tech and scrapping it in the middle based in sales. With better marketing and push, things like the kin, zune, windows phone 10 and others could have been better. Especially with the last phone going into desktop mode when plugged into a monitor. Samsung Dex is the future of smartphones that I'm looking for. Thank you for this great informational piece. I remember sidekick releasing an Android phone prior to shutting down. Too bad that didn't do better as there is still a market for physical keyboards. The internal ribbon wearing out and breaking contact being the point of failure on most phones with this feature, the slide out keyboard phones had a whole different set of issues on their own.

@christiancrow 4 жыл бұрын

I forgot this came same time as iPhone 4 , it had zero chance , iPhone was miles ahead in quality

@bland9876 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah but iPhones are like $1,000 this was only $50 you can't expect the same thing for way less money.

@fluffistaken 3 жыл бұрын

@@bland9876 Kin Two costed 100 dollars at first and Iphone 4 was priced 200 dollars. And you could buy 3gs for a 100 in 2010. Kin was literally dead on birth.

@bland9876 3 жыл бұрын

@@fluffistaken You are saying the iPhone was $200 i don't believe you. unless they where taking a massive loss on each sale there is no way they could have gotten it that low. my s7 edge was $699 for example

@imjustsomeguy 4 жыл бұрын

The Kin TWOm was the first phone I ever owned. My parents didn't want to pay for data so I went with this phone. Ngl I liked my phone, especially the built-in Zune. At the time, I had an iPod Touch 4 so I didn't need a smartphone

4 жыл бұрын

I owned a Lumia 640 and loved it. I updated it to Windows phone 10. Works still after 4 years of use.

@ItsCrawdaddy 4 жыл бұрын

I had the Kin2M when I was a senior in high school.. I loved it. The full keyboard made texting super easy.

@electronicsandewastescrapp7384 4 жыл бұрын

The treo 270 was a data connected full color full function palm pilot (with all of the software library) plus 2G data with an HTML browser. It was rad, a flip phone with a big screen and qwerty KB. .. and about 6 months before the sidekick. There was also the HP jornada which was a microsoft pocket pc 2002 edition phone debuted in feb 2002.

@justjadethings9630 4 жыл бұрын

It's funny how you had to remind us that it was once a smartphone

@firenado4295 4 жыл бұрын

why is it everything Microsoft touches turns to meaningless dust to be forgotten for the rest of time

@TechZACH16 4 жыл бұрын

That's a pretty pessimistic view of the company that makes the operating system on over 70 percent of computers worldwide.

@TechZACH16 4 жыл бұрын

Though even I have to admit they've had a hard time with mobile computing.

@TheCompyshop 4 жыл бұрын

@@TechZACH16 They can't do mobile computing because they were too slow/late to respond to Apple. Literally Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone when it launched. Biggest mistake he ever made. Instead of pushing ahead he just stuck to what Microsoft had at the time, which was a reasonable size of the PDA/"Smart"Phone market.

@firenado4295 4 жыл бұрын

@@TechZACH16 only cuz they payed manufacturers to put it on making it so that non tec savvy people have no choice so all that they have done is create a monopoly and now no one can use other os' cuz hardly anything is compatible that is why people use windows 10 not because they want to but because they have to

@firenado4295 4 жыл бұрын

@Carlemagne Soda the surface pro and microsoft office are good products I can agree there but not with windows 10 windows 10 is the biggest headache I have ever had in my 20 years of working with computers I mean its not like vista when good things came from it no its just like they went "oh look people are having too much fun with windows 7 lets destroy it so we can get back at then for hating windows 8"

@alphaseinor 3 жыл бұрын

"Danger, It's just around the corner" - was their stealth mode flash animation

@artstrange3230 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks to Street Fighter, I can no longer read CE as anything but Champion Edition. Windows Champio Edition must've been all the rage back in the day.

@dangerouskoin4874 4 жыл бұрын

I actually tested these devices while working at Microsoft for a few contracts as a software tester. All of us, I dont think a single co worker was into these phones. None of us knew why they even existed lol. One day they disappeared and a Windows Phone 7 device was placed in front of us. Now those were cool, and had some amazing hardware for the time. The Windows phone OS was actually pretty great in my opinion but we all knew the lack of apps would tank it. When WP8 came out and Nokia made their flagship phones I was blown away. That was a fun time to be alive in the world of smart devices.

@dominicsam6871 4 жыл бұрын

I got this phone because it had built in WiFi (which was unheard of at the time) and I only had a text/talk plan. After it was 'cancelled' the green social button disappeared along with the social media applications. The keyboard was awesome and it was a neat form factor at the time.

@LynetteBarrerapink 4 жыл бұрын

I had a Kin Two! Didn't know about the M versions. I loved that phone so much! But started having issues with it around the time Verizon had that offer to switch it for a free phone. They told me I was able to choose whatever phone I wanted so I got the Samsung Note 3. Loved that phone too!

@Raul1528 4 жыл бұрын

I actually have the first generation Kin One (pebble shaped) and it's a fairly decent music player, and FM radio too, and emergency camera, and emergency internet device (with WiFi of course) Got it for $12 bucks, but it had scratches and dings sprinkled all over it _I want to meet it's previous owner to ask how their experience went_

@oshii3585 4 жыл бұрын

I had an O² phone as a kid. It came with a stylus and everything, but we didn't have internet so I just drew on it and played minesweeper. Better days.

@agnel47 4 жыл бұрын

I remember when it was called Project Turtle. It was supposed to take the world by storm. I still want one.

@Flabulo 4 жыл бұрын

I had to click on this. I went out of my way to get a Kin two like two years after they where around. The stupid captive touch screen broke super easy. I know they didn't make you get a smartphone data plan though. The whole reason I got one over an actual smartphone was because I didn't want to pay for a full data plan at like 15 years old. Edit - I guess I had a Kin Two M. Good work man.

@borgranta61103 4 жыл бұрын

I was involved with an online group that was involved with the Kin development and I even won a free Kin 2 because of my involvement.

@kamduke1394 3 жыл бұрын

We were acquired by Verizon in 2010 and I recall Microsoft flying in a kin representative to tell us how great this product was and why we should be selling tt I remember.. we all got kids for our personal use and no one ended up using them for anything

@theconezy 4 жыл бұрын

In the image for Zine pass they show album by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. They were in the Kin commercial.

@ny5i 3 жыл бұрын

I got one of these when it came out and returned it within 3 days. The Verizon rep was very understanding and I ended up getting a Samsung phone that ran Windows.

@abvmoose87 4 жыл бұрын

It was cool because it was one of the early devices to use Tegra. I remember they made a big deal about having a female project lead and there were several interviews with her where she spoke about how this would change the world and that she was about to publish her own book detailing the months leading up to the project launch. I wasnt quite sure why it performed so poorly until I heard you mention those missing features now, wow, that was bad :)

@CaidicusProductions 4 жыл бұрын

What an awesome watch this was, thanks for the content.

@BryceFoster 4 жыл бұрын

I actually really liked my KiN(one) small, camera was pretty good for its time and it fit like a pebble in my pocket. Would totally dig one with some updated specs. Oh, and it worked with zune as well😁

@averagejoejesse 4 жыл бұрын

I remember being in high school and wanting to get this phone so bad because you could purchase it as a feature phone without a data plan (My parents, like many in the early smartphone days, were not buying their kids a smartphone) That was part of their demographic I'm sure. But it wasn't big enough.

@AngryWildMango 4 жыл бұрын

I owned the KIN 1m. I was a freshman in high school. I loved the phone! Thought it looked cool. I don't remember using the social part or anything special. I just watched shows on it. The Mic broke when someone else knocked it from my hand.

@LordHonkInc 4 жыл бұрын

"It was also heavily tied in with the Zune ecosystem" Ah see, that's yer problem right there. Seriously though, while in retrospect this looks like an obviously flawed product from the start I'm almost impressed at how often Microsoft has managed to absolutely misjudge their customers ("Hey Steve, you know how The Kids™ love to tell everybody what they're doing? Let's make a device specifically for that!" - "But they can only use our services to share content, ye?" - "Oh of course, what else would they use? Twitter?").

@zdog90210 4 жыл бұрын

I can't believe it but my ex's family had 3 of them for her and her 2 sisters and I had an HTC EVO at the time and thought those phones were so outdated and I remembered her family upset because they had to get new phones. They all got iphone 4 if I remember correctly. She had a zoidberg wallpaper lol.

@shrimp_on_internet 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome job on the video

@_EyeOfTheTiger 4 жыл бұрын

This phone was doomed as soon as it was announced I remember calling it at the time that it was outdated and too small

@mdog1678 4 жыл бұрын

I had a kin one M back in the day, and absolutely loved it!

@VWDAWGXP 4 жыл бұрын

Like a boat cap sizin No hope on the horizon Got a 2 year contract And im stuck on Verizon..

@Creeper_ofDoom 3 жыл бұрын

Heh

@somethingiguess9783 3 жыл бұрын

I hated that song... Still do.

@00700556 4 жыл бұрын

I still have my kin 2. crazy thing about it, when I got mine it didn’t have the features that I saw in the commercial..... and I learned they had dropped support for all of that before I got it. 🤦🏽‍♂️

@PajamaMan44 4 жыл бұрын

I had one of these, Kin Onem, back in highschool. It was a fun form factor

@beedslolkuntus2070 4 жыл бұрын

My father had one Nokia Brown phone with that type of a keyboard. The keyboard keys had the amazing white LED backlight on the keys.

@amnottabs 4 жыл бұрын

Nokia C6?

@beedslolkuntus2070 4 жыл бұрын

amnottabs Something similar 😖

@Iamsososorry 4 жыл бұрын

I had this after they deactivated the "smartphone" capabilities and it was the best dumbphone I had. Kinda miss that keyboard.

@gakabler 21 күн бұрын

I remember seeing these on the shelf when they came out. I didn't even consider it as an option. My thought was that it wasn't even a toy!

@TheBrickedWall 2 жыл бұрын

You mentioned a T-Mobile data breach from almost a decade ago and we just dealt with the same thing yet again. Makes me really really want to switch carriers YIKES

@wmpl2011 4 жыл бұрын

48 days? That’s less than 2 months!

@blainepalmerza 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome video, Michael!

@MichaelMJD 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@SirSethery 4 жыл бұрын

This was my first phone (the TWOm feature model), and I friggin loved this thing.

@AlwaysBolttheBird 4 жыл бұрын

I actually loved Windows Mobile when it still had the start menu. It was really awesome. Probably because there wasn’t anything like it at the time

@DharmaScienceRadio 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for putting "like/subscribe" at the end of your video, and not the start. People can only decide on if they actually like something after the fact, not before. I will actually now sub JUST because of that. Continue your work, kind sir 👍

@MichaelMJD 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for subscribing!

@Snuzzled 4 жыл бұрын

I actually almost bought this phone. My mother had Verizon whereas I had Tmobile (for the Sidekick) and she kept trying to get me to switch to Verizon to get on her family plan so I could save money. When this phone came out, she was like "Look, they have a phone like your Sidekick, you should switch." So glad I didn't. Only reason I didn't was the thought of swapping all data over (had been a loyal SK user for five years at that point lol)

@redmillion7089 4 жыл бұрын

I had the Kin ONEm many years ago and I loved it.

@SJohnsoninc 3 жыл бұрын

What I find most interesting is that when they released this, iPhone 3GS had been on the market for a long time, and iPhone 4 was coming. Sure, iPhone was the top-of-the-line flagship in a completely different price range, but the trend was clear. They made a phone that nobody would ever want, and decided to launch it.

@ZacharyZydron 4 жыл бұрын

I bought the KIN 2 on release from Verizon with their version of a data plan at the time. When the KIN service was shutdown, Verizon let me choose any smartphone available at the time which used the data plan. I was able to upgrade to the Droid X which was a flagship at the time. My brother had the KIN 1 and was given the same option. We were unhappy to see the failure of KIN which was an interesting concept however the free upgrade was really nice and the phones we were able to get were much nicer compared to the $100/$50 original purchase.

@sonygoup 4 жыл бұрын

Never knew that the Sidekick was so impressive. In the Caribbean we never had them.

@Choralone422 4 жыл бұрын

I remember the whole KIN fiasco. It was essentially a product that was DOA at launch. Had a phone like that been launched in 2007 or maybe 2008 it may had a small chance at success but by mid 2010 it was too little and too late, even with a reasonable price w/ 2 year contract.

@futuregohan4837 2 жыл бұрын

If It Was Launched In 2000 It Would've Fared Better

@jamesmiddleton4741 4 жыл бұрын

Me watching on a windows phone 😂😂

@chunye215 4 жыл бұрын

For some weird reason, KZfaq still mostly works on IE11 mobile on WP8.1 when usually google is very quick in cutting support for old shit, especially if it's from another company.

@dttrsp 4 жыл бұрын

Me too xD

@evanie1659 4 жыл бұрын

Wish Windows Phones were still around 😪😪😪 I had one years ago

@lawrencedoliveiro9104 4 жыл бұрын

Phones never ran Windows. Though some of them did run an OS called Windows Phone. So what you have there is not a Windows phone, but a Windows Phone phone.

@LastofAvari 4 жыл бұрын

@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 I do believe Windows 10 was available for a few late Lumia models by Microsoft as far as 8 can remember.

@brokenelectronics3665 4 жыл бұрын

Three midrolls in an 11 minute video? KZfaq is shooting themselves in the foot.

@y0shiness 4 жыл бұрын

...Or the video creator put each one there intentionally. 😊

@BiancoAsterisco 3 жыл бұрын

Aw man I loved that phone Never had it connected to the internet so the social media part never mattered to me but the shape and use was fun as a teenager Sadly both kin ONEms I hads' microphones stopped working within a month of getting them and I had to get a different model since they stopped selling them

@tenikokoroofficial 4 жыл бұрын

I love learning how Microsoft and apple and etc building a technology

@cat1554 4 жыл бұрын

There was no next of kin

@wehooper4 3 жыл бұрын

I think you're missing the wrench Verizon threw int the plan. When first announced, it was going to be a $10 a month data plan. But just before launch Verizon switched it to $30 like the normal smart phone plans, which in the days before we were all reliant on the internet in our pockets seems like a LOT of money.

@PikaPerfect 4 жыл бұрын

unironically thought this was gonna be some really cursed and bizarre video about someone who was kin with microsoft

@AsellusPrimus 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the very thorough video. I think you should film the shots of the phone on a more photogenic surface, maybe you could put a white or black cloth over the table. And it would be good if the phone was cleaned or even buffed before filming. Those small changes would make a big difference in my opinion.

@rammagaming Жыл бұрын

I'd never heard about the Kin's second attempt to launch as feature phones, just the first. But this makes me even more curious about the true inner workings of the Microsoft takeover of Nokia that burned it to the ground. A lot of really interesting stuff was happening in the cell phone world in those days, but the instant Microsoft got majority control and basically deleted all Maemo devices to produce Windows Phone devices was the day the real Nokia died. Modern renditions of the N900 or even an E70 are my absolute dream phones, but sadly the project to modernise N900's using original chassis died a few years ago. Cell phone tech just advances too fast for people in their spare time to design boards that fit in the casings with modern chips, more ram, and better screens. If it ever came to be though, and running proper up to date kernel wise Maemo, then hell yes I'm buying one. Not many ever experienced Maemo on the N900, but my favorite example when trying to explain why I loved it so much is this -- I was able to open literally EVERY single application on my phone at the same time, while playing dwarf fortress over SSH, and when going back to the process switcher the phone didn't slow one bit while showing what was happening in each application in real time. On my Pixel 7 Pro? Yeah, no. It forgets where I was if the app gets 3-4+ apps back in the history. The N900 was just designed so well for a fluid and functional OS experience, and it delivered better than anything I've ever used. Sadly Maemo's last official release was 11 years ago, so the chances a original N900 would run anything like it did 13 years ago when I had mine are slim given features it'd be missing for the modern internet. But damn, had original Nokia lived on with their production facilities not scrapped by Microsoft, I really wonder what they'd be making. HMD Global phones just aren't the Nokia I used to love so much.