

Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story - dieterrams
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/02/life-and-death-of-microsoft-kin-the-inside-story/

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dotBen
This is great reading for any young engineer graduating from school and
considering where to place his talents.

I would draw such attention to the 'death march' that occurred - where people
knew the project was a failure but the company continued to build and ship
because of a contractual obligation. This is the stuff of big enterprise,
where the costs of shipping a failed product are less than the cost of missing
an obligation.

Even if you have decided you don't want to work at a startup, there are big
companies (SME's) and and there are BIG companies (massive corporations).
Microsoft is obviously one of the latter, and so you gotta ask yourself
whether this is a situation you would want to risk finding yourself in.

It's fine if you are a middle-aged "9-5 career programer" who doesn't really
care what he is building and just wants to earn money to give his family a
comfortable life, pay for his golf habit... but it is not an environment any
young aspiring engineer should end up in.

Sadly many do and I fear this very eventuality for friends who tell me how
excited they are to be applying to Microsoft... :(

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Elepsis
Microsoft is a very different company depending on what division you're in and
what you're working on. Sure, there are parts of the company that are less
exciting for your typical just-out-of-college hire, but as someone who joined
a little over a year ago in a similar situation, I can say I'm quite happy
with what I do and with my experience so far. Don't paint the entire company
with a single broad brush.

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raganwald
I imagine that's exactly what the folks on the Pink team were saying right up
until Lees pulled his coup and wrested control away from Allard. Mobile was
moribund and Pink was a fresh break from the past. They must have been
exciting, heady days full of optimism and fighting spirit.

Then suddenly it all changed, and that's the problem with companies run as
warring city states. You're at the mercy of a change of weather.

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mustpax
_While it's hard to argue that Kin is an awful product, the saddest part of
the story is that many of the people responsible for it knew it was -- they
were largely victims of political circumstance, forced to release a phone that
was practically raw in the middle._

Oh god, how much infighting could Microsoft chuck if Microsoft could chuck
products? A lot apparently.

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boredguy8
I think the saddest part in all of this is that the people who say 'no' are
always vindicated. Could the Kin have been a hit? Who knows. But by cutting
impassioned people from the project and gutting backing, it was doomed to
fail.

And the skeptics get to say, "Look how much I saved by not investing any more
in this product! God, imagine if we spent ten thousand more hours working on
this, how much more we would have lost!"

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karzeem
I read an interview with Dean Kamen a while back where he said the hardest
thing about inventing things is knowing when to quit.

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zmmmmm
The problem here is not just when they quit but how they quit. I think MS is
going to take a hit in their reputation over this and it is going to carry
over into soured trust from crucial carrier partners (and really any other
business partner) going forward.

Had they gone to Verizon and said "hey, I know we had a deal, but our business
plans have changed and here is something that will be much better for both of
us" then they could have killed it cleanly. It might have cost them some
amount in terms of a dollar figure but it would have cost them a lot less in
terms of reputation. Deliberately sabotaging something that you are doing in
collaboration with a partner so that it fails on launch is a real trust
breaker. How much faith would you put in Microsoft for the launch of WP7 now
if you were Verizon? You certainly wouldn't be putting your business on the
line.

~~~
raganwald
Even without the Kin debacle, if I were being paid $1,000 an hour to advise
partners about their relationship with Microsoft, I would suggest they look at
PlaysForSure. It is NOT news that Microsoft will screw its partners, and they
know it when they go into business with Ballmer.

 _Your father did business with Hyman Roth, he respected Hyman Roth... but he
never trusted Hyman Roth!_

~~~
hga
" _'You made a mistake, you trusted us,' said 3Com founder Bob Metcalfe,
quoting an unnamed Microsoft executive._ "
([http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2002/pulpit_20020620_0007...](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2002/pulpit_20020620_000736.html))

