Oh, the Microsoft Kin. The stories of why this went from being one of Microsoft's biggest hopes to one of its biggest failures has been told elsewhere. The short version is that it is one of the shortest-lived consumer products, ever. A number of the interface elements survive in Windows Phone 7, but the hardware platform died so quickly many people never knew it was there. That said, there are actually nice things about the Kin One, which is essentially a slider version of a Blackberry with a touchscreen, thus being a kind of intermediate form between the classic BB-inspired keyboard phones and post-iPhone smartphones. The slider mechanism is actually quite satisfying and the palm-sized pebble form factor is great. The visual design, with hints of lime green and the exposed white plastic tabs at the top and bottom when it's closed, is quirky, but fun. For the teenagers of 2007 that it was designed to entertain, it would have been a great phone. For the teenagers of 2010 when it came out, it was already a has-been.
