The arrival of the iPhone changed everything and overnight the industry did a 180 degree turn. We’ve gone from mobile phones with very different and widely varying operating systems to mobile phones that seem to come from the same template (like now) and have two dominant systems: the 2007 iPhone and iOS and Android. With the arrival of the legendary HTC Dream.

Microsoft had been in the mobile space with its platform (especially for PDAs) for several years, but despite Steve Ballmer’s mocking of the iPhone, the Seattle giant caved in to the obvious: they had to seriously enter the mobile smartphones segment. And this was not on Windows Phone, but on Microsoft KinThis led to one of the biggest disasters in company history. After six weeks of selling, they withdrew completely.

Pink Project

Before iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, Microsoft had a certain position in the mobile segment thanks to Windows Mobile. It was based on Windows CE and had been around since 2000. Compared to other operating systems for mobile devices, Windows Mobile was extremely advancedbut for many years it was used only in ‘Pocket PC’ or PDA devices.

It was gradually updated, especially to become the heart of mobile phones, but with the last versions of 2009 it was seen that it fell behind the competition. Reason? Among other things, it did not support use on capacitive screens as it was intended to be a system for resistive screen mobile phones that used a stylus. This was something Steve Jobs laughed about during the iPhone’s unveiling and was changed with Windows Mobile 6.5, but it was too late.

It was clear that Windows Mobile needed a reboot (this would come with the announcement of Windows Phone 7 in 2010) and it was also known that Microsoft was working on something called ‘Microsoft Pink’ or ‘Project Pink’. The problem was that little was known about the project and others had taken a large share of the market.

The same year the iPhone launched, Microsoft acquired Danger, a company that specialized in developing apps and services for T-Mobile, so it was clear they were on to something to seriously get into mobile phones. And the man in charge of the project was James Allard, better known as J Allard.

Allard was one of Microsoft’s executives and was a name that greatly damaged the serious image of the company. When Bill Gates tried to modernize with dances or a Doom commercial, it felt forced, but Allard was a disruptive piece among Microsoft executives. One of the ones responsible for Microsoft starting to look at the internet in their own operating systems, and one of the names that gets forgotten when we talk about the birth of Xbox, Xbox Live is one of the pet projects for online gaming.

You may also be familiar with Microsoft’s iPod, the Zune. This was also his job, and ultimately it was clear that he had a different vision than the other executives of the company. Allard and his team began working on Pink in 2008, and the Danger acquisition was more about acquiring IP and cloud computing technologies than a desire to acquire its workforce.

Civil war at Microsoft

The curious thing about Microsoft is that some of its products were born as a result of a civil war. for Xbox, Microsoft had two teams workingOne had more innovative ideas than the other, and in the end, it was Bill Gates who chose one vision or another. Something similar happened with Pink.

Microsoft had two teams working on the mobile platform: On one side, Allard and his team at Project Pink. On the other side is Andy Lees, a suit-and-tie-clad executive working at Windows Phone. They were two completely independent teams and their visions were different.

Apparently Allard wanted the Pink to be more like the Zune, which makes sense considering it was his creation, but Lees wasn’t happy at all. Not only could he not see Allard’s project clearly, but he thought Pink’s team was taking away Windows Mobile’s resources.

In fact, according to Engadged, Lees was jealous of the project and gained control of the project from Allard after an internal rivalry. At the time, Lees was responsible for Pink and the reboot of Windows Mobile, later known as Windows Phone. The two projects had different codes and a completely different basis. It also makes sense to consider a merger, but no: Microsoft had to release the Pink operating system.

That’s because it had already secured contracts with the companies, with Sharp and Verizon being the only two names on the table.

Sexting, unfinished mobile phone forced to go up for sale

After much rumors, Microsoft held a presentation in April 2010. It was two years behind the iPhone and a year behind Android, but hey, they introduced Microsoft Kin. That was the trade name for the project, and they did so with a perhaps somewhat mundane idea: a video in which a teenager takes a photo of his own torso and sends the image to another teenager.

We don’t know who came up with this, but it was something that forced the company to fix it because there were already rumors of them promoting it. have sex. And that’s it, the phone was focused on teenagers and young adults, so this image was completely inappropriate. But despite the controversy, the announcement aimed to clarify the nature of Microsoft Kin.

Meanwhile, the announcement was as follows:

And these were “social phones” as Microsoft itself described them, they were very focused on social networking and communication, something that was highly integrated into the home screen of the devices, which by the way were two: The Kin ONE and the Kin Two . They didn’t think much about the name.

The two models had different screen formats, but both had a capacitive touch panel, cameras and a sliding QWERTY keyboard. They also shared an incomplete operating system. They didn’t have an app store., you couldn’t install third-party apps, there were no games, there was no calendar app or syncing with Outlook, there were no instant messaging apps like Messenger, and the keyboard was left unfinished. To give us an idea, the Motorola MPX200 from 2003 already had Messenger.

In fact, it’s a bloody thing that a mobile phone focused on social networking has a Twitter app that’s essentially a feed. You couldn’t upload photos, send direct messages, or RT.

There were a number of other elements missing, and it seemed incredible that a mobile phone would go on sale in such a green state, with the iOS and Android family not stopping growth, but the reason was these internal fights. When Lees took over the Allard division, the direction of the design changed and the core system became more similar to Windows Mobile, but without the new features that would soon be known for Windows Phone.

This caused a delay in development and the main problem was that it had to be made available in whatever condition it was. We have already commented on this Sharp was chosen to produce the hardware and Verizon would be the sole outlet, so the operator (which has enormous power in the United States) struggled to meet deadlines.

In fact, in the Engadget story mentioned, it is stated that those involved in Kin knew that it would go wrong, but it had to be started no matter what. The two development groups were completely disconnected and Lees was blamed. They stated in the article that Kin employees were “spinning around in their chairs, not knowing who would keep their jobs.”

Failure of billion

Regardless, Kin had good ideas, like cloud storage that automatically syncs photos, videos, and messages for viewing on a cloud service called Kin Studio, and the Koop service that works as an aggregator for social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace.

But turbulent development, worrying rollout and rather weak specifications caused the phones to fail. Combined with extremely high Verizon ratesThere is talk of embarrassing sales, so much so that sales of the mobile phones were stopped six weeks after their launch.

Moreover, another article states that Microsoft’s internal problems caused an 18-month delay in launch, which upset Verizon so much that it When Kin was put up for sale, he did so under a higher contract More than originally recommended, which made Kin mobiles much less attractive to users. The thing is, the minimum rate was $69.98 per month for two years.

You could say Microsoft and Verizon killed it… and Kin itself killed itself. They are said to have sold 500 units at launch, six weeks after launch Verizon started returning the phones, and to salvage things, Sharp teamed up with limited-function versions of the two phones (or even more) released. which failed to save the furniture. In fact, in August 2011, they decided why they would continue.

In total, the time between the acquisition of Danger and the development itself is estimated to have been one operation. It cost Microsoft $1 billionConcentrating its efforts on Windows Phone and, as we said, having to launch Kin “in the meantime”, as the popular saying goes. And don’t think this is just a United States thing, because in the fall of 2010 Microsoft was planned to launch Kin in Spain together with Vodafone, but for obvious reasons this never happened.

In October of the same year, Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7, a much more comprehensive system, and closed down the official Kin page the following year. Some of Kin’s ideas were present in the new Windows Phone, which came with major support from companies such as Samsung, HTC or LG (with phones such as the HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC 7 Mozart, Samsung Omnia 7 or LG Optimus 7). ) and above all there was an app store.

The grudge passed without pain or victory, it was a huge failure, and the most curious thing is that due to its temporary passage and the fact that social networks were not so crowded in 2010, many people may not have even heard about this project of a mega corporation. As is the case with Microsoft.

in Xataka | In 1993, Satya Nadella was a lanky middle man who introduced Excel to developers. CEO of Microsoft today