Has next of Kin been notified?

They'll never catch up. They are too far behind, Apple is too well established in phones, they have too much of a history of making crappy products, and their hegemonic period made them fat, lazy and complacent. Given how vulnerable Windows machines are to malware, why would anyone buy a Windows Phone when iPhones and Android phones are well established and proven?

Never heard of it.

Yeah, the marketing campaign was that bad.

Never heard of it either and I work in the industry.

I feel kind of bad for microsoft, and I'm a Mac diehard since 1985.

Microsoft does somethings very well, but making anything that's supposed to "cool" or "fun" is not one of them.

Why are Microsoft's marketing campaigns always so abysmal? The ads for the Kin were painfully condescending and so obviously trying to be 'young' and 'hip' that no one actually young & hip would ever touch one. It never ceases to amaze me that a company with so much money can fail so reliably at advertising.

I saw one in Best Buy. It was really lame-looking, like a toy phone or a fake phone you'd buy for a two-year-old to pretend with. Even the SHAPE was dumb. Honestly, what it reminded me of more than anything was a Tamagochi -- remember those? The little electronic pet you had to feed every so often or it would sicken and die?

Meanwhile, just three feet away was a wide assortment of real smartphones with proper screens that could do more than update Facebook or whatever the hell Kin was supposedly for.

I think Microsoft's marketing and advertising departments are run by Google moles, sabotaging their own work.

I'm kind of betting whoever they had doing their marketing campaign was some H1-B visa or L2 visa person who didn't grok US consumers.

Note to self: don't outsource marketing to foreign countries. It just increases the lawsuits and gets you an Epic Fail.

@13, I'll bet you're wrong. In fact, I'll bet it was a roomful of people exactly like you. The Kin is kind of the Will in Seattle of phones, now that I think of it.

Your analysis of who gets visas, what for, and with what consequences is lamer than average even for you. Beyond epic.

And yet no one will shut down your program. Fucking hell. There is no justice.

Fnarf, that was epic pwnage.

oh christ!!! now we'll never know if kendra ever made it to questloves' impromptu concert in the park. so sad.

The stalker commercial was so weird. Silently walk up to your ex in public, take a picture, continue to say nothing, and post it to your network? Who on earth thought that was normal?

Jeopardy! theme music plays - da di da do da di da...

Me: Microsoft for $800

Alex: The answer is: Schadenfreude

Me: What is the feeling you get when Microsoft discontinues the Kin only 6 weeks after its launch?

Alex: That's correct; and I shouldn't say this in front of the audience, but just what is it that those high-paid clowns over in Redmond DO all day?

Microsoft kills KIN, ending Danger team'…

I'm relieved that someone else noticed how stalker-ish that ad was. Is there really a market for a phone that assists guys in taking pictures of their ex-girlfriends who clearly don't want their picture taken? Did Microsoft think there was? (After all, that's what night-vision cameras are for, right, guys? Guys?)