As reported by Mashable, Microsoft has officially pithed its latest mobile devices, the Kin. Revealed only in April and launched via Verizon in May amidst a significant marketing push (one prominent enough that my mom felt compelled to clip and mail a newspaper ad to me), the Kin is waving buh-bye.

Here is Microsoft’s official statement, seeming to imply (aka “pray”) that the Kin served as an important bridge to the its Windows Phone 7 heir:

“Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.”

Personally, I was pretty impressed by the marketing effort. Although the phone was clearly targeted at teens, it stood out in a crowd, even in my media-saturated opinion. I send out a virtual, sympathizing chuck on the shoulder to the teams responsible for the launch campaign. While I’ve had the misfortune to see campaigns I’ve slaved over for months meet an untimely death, I can’t say I’ve seen one go from cradle to grave publicly so fast. (And not one so big.) If you listen, you can still hear it’s low, wheezing deathmoan: “Zuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnee”

I think this campaign (and failed product launch) stand as evidence of the absolute-zero-margin-for-error, cutthroat reality that is the mobile device marketplace. The Kin couldn’t stand the heat, and got out of the kitchen. Fast.