Microsoft has decided not to launch the Kin One and Kin Two in the UK – and has decided to scrap the whole project altogether.
TechRadar was present at the launch of the Kin phones in San Francisco in May, where Microsoft was very bullish about this new product category, which even had its name on it.
We're now worried that we're bad omens, as Microsoft has issued the following statement, confirming that the Kin phone project will be rolled into Windows Phone 7 amid rumours of poor handset sales:
"We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned.
Rolling in the Kin
"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. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."
The Kin One and Kin Two packed a lot of high-tech hardware into a phone that was primarily aimed at students and those in their early twenties... consumers Microsoft had decided were the most likely to be social network addicts, really.
Sales must have been awful for the project to be scrapped six weeks into launch – a shame we're never going to get to see them over here then.
