It took a long time coming. And when it did come, it just went away in a jiffy. The Kin chapter is something that Microsoft would like to forget. After all the engineering, marketing and promotions, the company allegedly sold only 500 of their Kin devices. Some argue that the number is in the high four digits. Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter – any product that is terminated two months after launch is deemed a failure.
But how much did Microsoft lose in the entire deal? According to the quarterly results announced yesterday, the company could have lost as much as $240 million in the development and marketing of Kin. This is what Redmond has to say in their quarterly reports
“Cost of revenue increased $584 million or 23%, primarily reflecting increased online costs, increased royalty costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone.
Cost of revenue increased $240 million or 2%, primarily reflecting increased online costs and charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone, offset in part by decreased Xbox 360 console costs and reductions in other costs due to resource management efforts.”
Wow, a quarter of a billion written off due to Kin. That must hurt.