Don't send a Samurai to do a Ninja's job

My eyebrows were raised a bit by the rumor-news that the Kin, Microsoft's mobile phone based on Windows 7 was being yanked from the market. At first, I thought that I had just missed Kin's release b/c targeted at a much younger demographic. But it turns out that it's been a mere six weeks since launch.

In the trade press, the usual suspects have been blamed: Low on features, high on monthly plan, disjointed marketing, etc. But to be contrary, I'm going to declare myself a temporary marketing expert (on the strength of having once been a tween-then-teen-then-twenty-something) and let you in on the secret behind the failure.

Simply put, the target demographic was too darned obvious. More importantly, Angst doesn't take well to obvious pandering. If you want Angst to buy something, you do one of two things:

A.) Tell Angst to grow up and leave that sort of thing in the toybox with its old Barbies & GI Joes. (See also, Hello, Kitty)
B.) Tell Angst that it can have it when it grows up. (See also, everything else.)

Personally, I thought that the round version of the Kin was kind of cute, suggestive of a hyper-evolved Tamagotchi. (Which sentiment, by the bye, should pretty much be the Kiss of Death for its prospects with Angst.) So I hope that Microsoft & Verizon's lost millions will at least benefit the B-school textbooks of the next decade. Namely as an example of the difference--purely in marketing terms, of course--between Ninjutsu and Bushido.