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The vendor lock is awful. For example, if I wanted to get iPhone 4 - I can't, because I don't live in US. But apart from that Kin thing, let me ask : "likely thanks to its too-high-for-the-demographic $30 data fee from Verizon" - is that too much for current US market ? and what exactly data fee means ?
For example, here in Europe, you can get а 15$ plan with lots of free minutes / SMS, and an Internet access included, with some speed limitations after going over the initial MBs. Then, you can get a phone leasing for 1 or two years included in your monthly bill, for as low as 2-3$ per month.

I listened to TWIT or some other shoddy podcast - they talked about the problem with that $30 plan. This was intended for "generation upload" which means young kids. If you have 2 kids, that's $60/month extra stress on your wallet.

That $30 is in addition to the $40 minimum you pay for phone service. (Texts are more still on smartphones, but I don't know about the Kin). The plan pricing certainly could've been a factor, but Verizon has instituted mandatory data plans on all their "multimedia" (feature?) phones, and it hasn't killed off the rest of their feature-phone offerings. [I do agree with another comment on here that, since that is the case, it makes more sense to pay a bit more and get a real smartphone.]

As for not trying it on another network, it may have been CDMA only, or it may just not have sold well due to the goofy marketing and strange form factor. I'm no fan of Apple's, but the Kin's industrial design can't tie the iPhone's shoes. Maybe MS ought to loan their keyboard and mouse hardware people to the phone group.

The vendor lock in isn't global, I can get iPhone on any of the major networks and many of the minor ones in my country, and the only difference to their standard plans is the bundled data, and they're actually cheaper than the standard plans + data. I can also buy iPhone "unlocked" and put whatever sim I like into it. The killer here is the cost of data. Because our standard aDSL and cable broadband plans are all data based providers charge a fortune for it, and the same applies to 3G data, which is one reason I'm so thankful that iPhone DOESN'T do over-the-air updates.

Microsoft is a single entity, there is no need for the plural form of has.

There is in British English (you know, the real thing ).

You mean like this British guy:

Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.

Acheson, Dean

Brits sometimes incorrectly use the plural form in spoken word. Their own history and textbooks use the correct form.

Edited 2010-07-01 16:48 UTC

Sorry bud, you are wrong. The British know their own 'living' language just as you know your dialect (for example, in my own dialect both British and American spelling is generally accepted - we prefer to communicate rather than distract or get distracted by 'grammar nazism'). Why start this off-topic discussion just because you don't like the content of the post?

Blow it out your kazoo, Thom. I get this enough from actual Brits without a chime-in from Europe. Real thing or no, even British linguists admit British English is used sloppily; the U.S. has hardly cornered that market among those that believe Noah Webster was and is a heretic.

Back on topic: Kin, meet Zune.

No need, maybe, but it's acceptable. "Microsoft" may be seen as an entity or as a group (plural).

No it is a single organization which requires the singular form.

You won't find a sentence like The East India company have in any classic British text. The current informal usage is grammatically incorrect.

(pulling out my Harbrace Handbook, 14th edition...)

Depends on whether the subject refers to the group as a whole, or to its individual members. Since the corporate entity does not have ideas, but its employees do, I think one could argue for the plural form here, at least in British English.

Da Book does state, however, that in American English collective nouns used as subjects are always singular.

Thank you. I brought this up regarding a post the other day. *sigh* OSNews have not agreed with me. ;-)

I agree.


I assume you are in the US? In the UK all the operators sell the iPhone (O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and H3G). Even Tesco, a chain of supermarkets, sells it!

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/buy/
http://direct.tesco.com/p/inc/specials/iphone/


What specific plan? Again you must be talking about the US, in the UK you can buy it unlocked or with a Pay Monthly contract or even with a regular Pay & Go SIM.

For example I just got an O2 Pay & Go SIM for free (most operators here give them away) to use with my 1st gen iPhone. I top up with 10 pounds per month and have 300 SMS and 500MB of data. There's nothing specific about it apart from the lack of Visual Voicemail maybe.

http://freesim.o2.co.uk/


The first iPhone came out in 2007. The iPhone 4 came out days ago and sold over 1.7 million units in 3 days. What do you mean by "it only worked (...) for a little while"?

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iphone.html

Edited 2010-07-01 21:38 UTC

You'd be correct, I'm in the US. The Microsoft Kin phones were also going to be sold here, so I thought it an apt comparison. Microsoft, in this case, made the same mistake Apple did in this country. Further, I say it only worked for Apple for a little while because the they've pretty much hit the amount of people willing to switch to AT&T (who really aren't that great) in order to get the iPhone. Certainly Apple is still going to sell millions of iPhone 4's in the coming weeks, but most of them are going to be upgrades from previous AT&T phones (mostly older iPhones).
I'm glad Apple, at least outside of the US, weren't dumb enough to lock the iPhone to one carrier via a ridiculous five year contract.

Isn't it a surprise what MS tried to borrow a couple of things from Apple? ^_^

I think if Microsoft could repeat Apple's "mistakes" they would be ecstatic.

The evidence does not suggest that Apple's approach has "only worked for a while". Apple's iPhone sales are continuing to accelerate and iOS continues to build an ever larger user base. And of course the iOS has the largest number of Apps and developers etc plus an App market measured in billions.

The problem with the kin is it is a feature phone, with smart phone parts (expensive processor, expensive touch screen etc.), which means that it is can't be much cheaper than an Android phone or iPhone.

And there is the problem. If I can can an Android Phone or iPhone for just a little bit more and install whatever social networking software I want on it, why should I get a Kin?

They put out a winner?

When?!

The marketing for the Pre freaked me (And a lot of other people) the hell out. There was -no- way that product was going to sell. It was simply too damn creepy to carry around in your pocket.