Remember when the Zune phone was a hot news topic?  Those days are long gone.  Even as Windows Mobile 6.5 plunges in marketshare and Microsoft hurries to finish its replacement in time for the holidays, it's trying to come to grips with the loss of its first mobile phone hardware project -- Kin.

A summary article of the Kin debacle over at Mini-Microsoft, a blog site that follows Microsoft closely, had some stinging commentary, purportedly from Microsoft employees or those close to the company.

States one apparent former employee:

All I can say as a former Windows Mobile employee who is now working for a competitor in the phone space is that this is good news for the rest of us...Personally I quit because of the frustrating management and autocratic decision style of Terry Myerson and Andrew Lees. The only exec in the team myself and other folks respected was Tom Gibbons who is now sidelined. Lees and Myerson don't know consumer products or phones. Gibbons at least knows consumer product development. We often talk about how Andrew Lees still has a job but Microsoft's loss is a gain for the rest of us.

Andrew Lees is a Microsoft Senior VP in the Mobile Communications (Kin, Windows Mobile) department.  Terry Myerson is listed as a Microsoft Corporate VP of Windows Phone Engineering.

Other commenters, apparently close to Microsoft leveled similar charges.  One states:

And now Kin is killed *after* it has shipped in June 2010. You can bet Andy was involved in the development of Kin, the partnership agreements with the OEM, Verizon and most importantly the "ship it" approvals all along the way. And Microsoft discovers its a bad idea after it blows up in the broad market. Absolutely no thanks to any pro-active decision making on Andy's part... Based on his past performance, 99% chance this is also going to be a total catastrophe. It further doesn't help that much of the Windows Phone 7 leadership team was kicked out of Windows when they screwed up Vista.

Another person who identifies themselves as a former Danger employee (see below for the Kin-Danger connection) remarks:

[Microsoft is a] dysfunctional organization where decisions were made by politics rather than logic.

It would be very easy to blow off such criticisms as sour grapes of ex-employees or even people posing as employees with no real knowledge of the company.  However, the fact is there does appear to be something badly wrong at Microsoft's phone division, and that lends the complaints a bit more plausibility.

The strange journey of Kin began with the purchase of Danger, makers of the Sidekick, in Feb. 2008.  Microsoft reportedly paid $500M USD for the company that in its best year made $54M USD in revenue, but overall had lost $188M USD.  Despite those questionable metrics, at the time the move was viewed as perhaps wise -- it gave Microsoft a hardware team with which to directly attack Apple's iPhone.

Two years later the child of that union, Kin, stumbled out onto the scene on the Verizon network.  The Kin One was priced at $49.99 and the Ken Two sold for $99.99.  Both phones were marketed with a curious campaign of a jilted lover apparently stalking his ex-girlfriend.  Take it from Apple or Palm -- good -- or bad -- commercials can make or break a campaign (granted the blame here only partially rests on Microsoft for approving the commercial, and certainly equally is the fault of the ad firm).  But perhaps more damaging than the bizarre ads was the fact that the phones were utterly unremarkable, serving only as a mediocre Facebook-enabled smartphone.

Within 45 days Microsoft decided it had seen enough, unceremoniously pulling the plug on the project at the end of June.  While the phones will continue to be sold on Verizon for the few that are interested, the message from Microsoft was clear -- it was putting Kin down faster than you can say Old Yeller.

So whether the complaints are true or not, Microsoft must make some serious changes to its phone business -- and make them now, if it hopes to survive fast competitors like Google, Apple, and HP (rebranded Palm).