• Ad Age, Thursday, July 1, 2010 11 AM

Andrew Hampp and Rupal Parekh pick up a report by Gizmodo that Microsoft's Kin is being killed off just six weeks post-launch and dig in to find out what went wrong. "It doesn't appear to be marketing that killed the Kin but just good old-fashioned pricing," they conclude. Even a price slashing failed to arouse interest.

It does provide a cautionary tale, they write, for those looking to social media to sell their wares. The campaign followed a 20-something woman as she used her Kin, hoping to appeal to the hip, urban consumer. But it was limited by the Kins' shortcomings - neither could download apps, share via Twitter, schedule events or use GPS. Not surprisingly, no one connected with the campaign had any comment.

The reporters find a similar story in Microsoft's other expensive grab for a bite of the Apple, reminding us that Zune, launched in 2006 to go up against the iPod, managed only a 2.2% share of the MP3 market, according to NPD.

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