Microsoft kills its own Kin

The Kin platform was based around messaging and social networking

Microsoft has canned its Kin consumer phone platform just three months after launch and before any of the devices even made it on to the European market.

Announced in April, the Kin family consisted of two handsets, Kin One and Kin Two, which went on sale in the US in May via retail outlets and operator Verizon. A European launch with Vodafone was scheduled for the autumn.

The Kin platform was based on Windows CE, but had a focus on messaging and social networks, integrating apps for MySpace, Facebook, Windows Live and Twitter.

However, after reported low sales of the devices, Microsoft has apparently changed its plans and dropped the platform completely and instead will put more effort behind Windows Phone 7, which is expected to appear in shipping handsets by the end of the year.

No one from Microsoft was available for comment, but the firm sent V3.co.uk the following statement:

"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 and beyond."

The company said that existing Kin phones would continue to be sold in the US, however.

It would appear that Kin was a victim of timing, suffering a protracted development (under the codename Pink) and coming to market just as competition in the smartphone is now bringing down the cost of fully featured handsets.

"The economics just didn't stack up for the target market against lower-cost 'real' smartphones," said Tony Cripps, principal analyst for devices and platforms at Ovum.

There is also the likelihood that the launch of the Kin phones confused buyers, coming so soon after Microsoft launched its Windows Phone 7 platform at the Mobile World Congress exhibition earlier this year.

Cripps said that Kin showed "some interesting features", but Microsoft's decision made sense in the current market conditions.

"It was much better to do this now than launch the Kin into the European market and invest further in a product that has little long-term potential," he said.