Microsoft Kin mobile phone operation is shut down

Microsoft is finally shutting down its Kin Mobile phone operation. On June 30, 2010, the company announced that it would not continue its Kin phone line.

The phone was announced in April 2010 and then launched in May and was shut down in June.

Microsoft was also planning to ship the phone in Europe through Vodafone but that plan was postponed due to poor sales in the U.S.

Verizon and Microsoft reported poor sales as the main reason behind this discontinuation but the companies did not disclose how many units had been sold. Microsoft has integrated the staff of Kin into its Windows Phone 7 team.

In a statement issued by Microsoft, the company said that it has decided to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and would not ship Kin this fall. It said that it would continue its business with Verizon in the U.S to sell the remaining units of its Kin phones.

The Kin phones were designed by Microsoft and produced by Sharp. The phone were focused on social networking and they were targeted towards teenages.

From the very beginning, phone critics panned the products saying “not smart enough” and “downright ugly.”

Many blamed Verizon’s $70 per month voice and data service plan which provided to be too expensive for teenagers.

Another major reason was Microsoft’s decision to change the phone’s OS in the middle which delayed the release of the phone. This did not go well with Verizon.