微软终止Kin

原文

链接 http://gizmodo.com/5576764/microsoft-kills-kin

Microsoft Kills Kin

Just six weeks after launch, Microsoft’s Kin, the social phone we wanted to love, is dead. Microsoft is ending its short life, sources close to Microsoft tell us.

There won’t be a separate Kin product anymore. Effective immediately, Andy Lees is shoving the entire Kin team into the core Windows Phone 7 team, so there will just be one big group to focus on Windows Phone 7.

The major reason? Sales. Microsoft never confirmed(or denied) that only 500 Kins were sold, but it’s clear that the response has been completely underwhelming. Otherwise, why kill a project that was in development for years after just a few weeks? (And cost millions.)

A major reason it bombed, besides the weird, non-specific faux hipster marketing? Price.Verizon priced Kin’s monthly service like a smartphone, even though it wasn’t one. Even cutting the device price drastically didn’t alleviate the high cost of the monthly plan. (The confusing Kin, a Windows Phone 7 by Microsoft flustercluck branding didn’t help.)

The few people that did buy a Kin will still get support from Microsoft, but the future of promised software updates is up in the air. It seems safe to say, though, Kin isn’t going to evolve into the things we hoped it would. At best, we have to hope the things we did love-Kin Studio-will make it into Windows Phone in some guise.

Microsoft official statement on the matter, for what it’s worth, is vague but telling:

“We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch 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 Window Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S to sell current KIN phones.” [emphasis mine]

It’s not the first major innovative E&D project Microsofts slaughtered in recent months, but it’s the first that’s actually made it to market before being gutted. Verizon, for the record, says ”The phone is still an important part of our portfolio.”

All in all, still kind of astounding.

 

二、译文

微软终止Kin

微软的kin手机，我们想去爱的手机，仅仅发行了6个月之后，死了。据可靠消息，微软正在结束它短暂的生命。

再也不会有独立的Kin产品。立即生效地，Andy lees正在把整个kin团队推挤到windows phone 7核心团队，今后只有一个专注于windows phone 7的大团队。

主要原因是什么？微软销售部门绝不会确认只买了500台手机，但很明确的是市场的反应非常不理想。另外，为什么开发了几年的项目短短几个星期就这么终止了？（还花费了数百万美元）

（此段不会）

少数买了Kin手机的人将继续得到微软的支持，但是承诺过的软件升级的未来很难确定。似乎可以这么说，虽然kin没有进化成我们所期望的事物，至多我们还可以期望kin的一些外观能够加入到windows phone里面。

微软官方声明：

“我们决定专注于windows phone 7 发行，我们计划这个秋天开始就不再将kin运往欧洲。另外，我们正在合并kin团队和window phone 7团队，把kin团队中有价值的创意和技术并入window phone 的发布。我们将继续与美国的Verizon公司合作销售现有的kin手机。”

（此段不会）