When Microsoft decided to stop sales of its recently released KIN devices, rumours suggested that Verizon had sold no more than 10,000 units since the launch. New rumours suggest that it may have been much worse than that. According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, a “a well-placed little birdie” told him that only 503 units were sold. Yikes!
It also appears that Microsoft employees are venting their frustration about the aborted project. Business Insider has collected some comments posted by Microsoft employees on the Mini-Microsoft blog. They do not paint a pretty picture. For example, Microsoft is described as a “dysfunctional organization where decisions were made by politics rather than logic” (I might argue that this is true of a lot of companies out there).
In the end, I’m not sure we’ll ever know just how many KINs were sold. It certainly won’t change the outcome of the drawn out Microsoft Pink (the project’s codename) saga though.
Update: It looks like the estimate of only 503 KINs sold is far too low. The KIN Facebook page shows that there were over 8,800 monthly active users using the KIN Facebook app. Estimates of sales around 10,000 units appear to be more accurate.
Source: The Boy Genius Report