Hasta La Gadget!

With the death of the Microsoft KIN – and the chum-churning internecine Shark Week that’s going on within Microsoft over blame and layoffs – there’s been a lot of debate on the Internet about exactly how many KINs have been sold.

Apple partisan John Gruber at DaringFireball.net sparked controversy yesterday by claiming that only 503 have been sold, but you need to look at his number with some skepticism. Gruber provides absolutely zero evidence for his claim. In fact, he says he “can’t vouch” for that 503 number.

A more solid number comes from PocketNow.com, which took a look at the KIN’s proprietary Facebook app and saw that 8810 KINs are currently active. The KIN Facebook app can only be used on KIN devices, so that’s presumably an accurate number – though it would also include review units, testers, and other not-for-sale devices.

That said, it’s looking like the number of KINs sold is closer to 8810 than to 503. In any case, it’s still a really pathetic failure on Microsoft’s and Verizon’s part.