The Evil Crossbreed of General Motors, IBM and a Dilbert Strip

Ars Technica calls the demise of Microsoft’s KIN a “tragic demise.” It really is, because the phone had some great ideas. Unfortunately, the story of KIN’s demise has become more interesting than the phone itself. Indeed, it may be a foreshadowing of Microsoft’s demise.

Yes, they’re raking in a ton of revenue, their products are used around the world, and they command more marketshare than anyone else. Their staple products, Windows and Office, make incredible amounts of cash for the company.

On the other hand, the market for those staple products is saturated and working against them. Windows and Office can’t print money forever. Their newer ventures have either failed in the marketplace, got canned by a stupid management decision, blundered their way into mere mediocrity, or some combination of the above.

Here is what makes me think that Microsoft is on a dangerous path. What do those two above paragraphs have in common? As recently as a couple years ago, they could have just as easily described General Motors and Chrysler.

Yes, there are major differences between the two, not the least of which is that Microsoft has far less infrastructure to support and maintain. I can’t see Microsoft ever collapsing, much less subsisting on North American tax dollars. I also can’t see Microsoft ever getting back the edge that it used to have.

According to the Ars Technica and Engadget stories, the KIN was mainly killed by management decisions, on the part of both Microsoft and Verizon. Microsoft executives didn’t like the product and delayed it through misdirection and suffocation, angering Verizon, which forced smartphone-sized data plans on the phone in a fit of retaliation rather than trying to make the deal work. Sounds like Microsoft did to KIN what GM did to Saturn.

The hell of it is, with regular phone pricing, or even a small surcharge, the KIN would have been superior to just about any non-smartphone out there. As it is, the KIN has a $70/month plan, including data. The iPhone, by contrast, starts at $55/month (the KIN gets unlimited data, but who would use more than 250MB/month on that thing?). Yes, that’s AT&T, but other Droid phones are priced the same as the KIN and are superior in every way. That limits the usefulness of the KIN to precisely bupkis.

I might own one right now, had this all worked out. I’m a college student on an internship, and I don’t have much in the way of cash. I’m on my parents’ family plan and the cost is only about $10/month for my phone line - this is on Alltel/Verizon. It would have been the same with the KIN, had the pricing been sane. Instead, it would be another $30/month for data I can barely use. Screw that, I need that extra tank of gas for my car.

It’s obvious that Microsoft is having some serious management issues. I personally was looking forward to seeing the Courier - I still like to jot things down with a pen and the Courier would have been awesome for that - but nope, it got killed off. The only new consumer-level product that Microsoft has revealed and hasn’t killed right now is Windows Phone 7, and the odds are so stacked against it that it’s sad. Somebody needs to fix something, that’s all I can say.

As for Verizon, God help Apple in its iPhone negotiations.