So, do you remember back in like, 2004, when “feature phones” like the LG EnV or the Sidekick came out? It had a little more OS to it than a typical flip phone, they often had full keyboards, integration with intant messengers at the time, web browsers, etc? Some were more media focused and had mp3 oriented features, some were social machines for emailing and texting, some were more camera oriented, some more game oriented, you could get a phone that fit your interests.
Microsoft intended to shoulder into that market circa 2008. The year after the iPhone launched. It then took them two years and a billion dollars to develop. Through in-fighting with development of their OTHER mobile product, Windows Phone. And finally in 2010, the era of the iPhone 4, they released the Kin.
The Kin did not perform well, it was very mediocre hardware.
It had no app store or software library at all.
It couldn’t access several instant messengers that were popular at the time.
The few people who did buy one returned them.
It wasn’t Verizon’s fault that Microsoft pulled a Microsoft and poured tons of money into arriving at a trend too late to compete with an overpriced mediocre product.
I miss hardware-keyboards so much… My love was a Xperia Mini Pro. Damn fine phone.
I had an Alias 2, and it was the best phone I’ve ever had
You and me both and the very tiny amount of phones available right now with keyboards are just not that great. Blackberry still made the best phones ever IMO, the KeyTwo was fucking awesome.
The Kin ran an operating system based on Windows CE.
And they wonder why it failed?
it’s crazy to me that american carriers can basically hold hardware ransom.
The running joke is that after the Bell monopoly was broken up, AT&T just
changed its namedropped references to the name “Bell” and reacquired competitors to become a monopoly again.Granted this was 15 years ago. The market was a lot different than it is now.
That being said, most people still buy their phones through their carrier. So whatever the carrier sales reps get paid the most to sell is what they push people towards.
Yeah, but carrier locked phones are illegal in many places (and always have been), aren’t they still allowed in the US?
Well considering the article is about a product launch in the US… seems relevant. Carrier locking isn’t illegal at all in the US.
They didn’t even used to have to unlock it once a contract was over, not that most carriers at the time would allow unlocked phones on their network anyway, they do at least have to do that now.
Damn I miss that form factor
I had a HTC Evo Shift 4G back in the day, similar style:
Loved it for typing.
I don’t. I had a phone like that with Verizon and the top would fly off after opening it the 100th time. I would get a replacement and 3 weeks later the same thing would happen. After the 6th replacement they finally let me switch to a flip phone of the same value.
I wanted a Sidekick so bad but I knew I’d break it for sure.
How hard were you opening it?!
Not hard at all, it had a spring so you only had to push it a little bit and it would do the rest. The spring action was very snappy… I am sure other phone manufacturers got it right, but I am still traumatized.
