Strategy – Launched just last three months, the two terminals KIN its stowed in the closet, and launches in Europe were canceled. Microsoft is now focusing all on Windows 7 Phone expected before the end of the year.

We suspected it a little, but the offensive KIN Microsoft in smatphones is a failure. Less than three months after the launch of the first two terminals of the range in the U.S., the publisher announced it stops everything and that exits in Europe with Vodafone are simply overridden.

The software giant said that the team working on KIN join that devoted the next operating system Windows 7 Phone which will allow Microsoft to regain control of the smartphone market, where it is slowing now behind Google's Android …

Both terminals KIN, very oriented social networks are made by Sharp but sold under the name Microsoft. A first. They have an interface (Loop), which centralizes the latest accounts, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter (a bit like MotoblurMotorola) and Windows Live.

Accumulation of defects

It also offers a music service and cloud storage mode. It is therefore understandable that these terminals are aimed primarily at young people with the promise of a smartphone 100% Social ..

Still, these devices combine a number of defects: some innovative features and a hybrid version of Windows Mobile while the publisher has in his files a fresh Windows 7 Phone and much more powerful. A contradictory strategy that has weighed heavy.

In addition, the positioning adopted by Microsoft is already very crowded, especially in the U.S. where 'messaging phones' abound and where Motorola already successfully surfing the wave of unified social networks.

Moreover, for some, these were only a launch KIN niche until Windows 7 Phone. But despite this positioning very targeted, the sauce did not, the sales were not followed.

Asked at the launch by ZDNet.fr Stéphane Dubreuil, Director Telecommunications and Media for the firm SIA Council estabit already very skeptical

The U.S. computer giant Microsoft, losing momentum in the market for operating systems for mobile phones, announced Monday the launch of new software, Windows Mobile 7, but denied any desire to create their own phone. This release was issued on the first day of World Congress mobile phone, which is held in Barcelona (Spain). “The Phone next generation of Windows, the Windows ‘Phone Round 7′, is a major milestone in our strategy,” after the launch of Windows Phone 6.5 in October that a “first step in our evolution towards mass market “said Nicolas Petit, director of the mobility division at Microsoft France.

The U.S. giant has “completely transformed its interface” with “a dynamic screen” which users can install the icons it wants (music, favorite contacts, social network …) and will automatically be updated he said. The manufacturer has inspired “a point of view of design and fluidity of the interface” of Zune, its multimedia player currently only available in the U.S., “said Petit.

A completely different system

The system includes six “hubs”, thematic worlds where the user can find all its contents, that “people”, a “dynamic directory” in the same place with the mails, social networks, etc.. The ” images, which are automatically synchronized with the wireless PC or the Xbox Live network to play on his mobile. ‘That is completely at odds over what you did before, “but also with what is happening today, where” everyone strives to copy Apple, which revolutionized the industry with its popular iPhone, said Mr. Petit.

The first Windows Mobile 7 will be available in Q4 2010. Microsoft’s partners include operators (Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Dell, new to this market, …). Asked about the launch of its own mobile, as Google has done with the Nexus One, manufactured by HTC, Mr. Petit said: “This is not our way.” “Our DNA is not to build the hardware. We have an ecosystem of partners that makes it better than us,” he said.