“And I did not say anything. And I didn't say anything because I couldn't figure out how it was in my area of expertise to have an opinion. I'm the comms guy. I'm not the business person. … And of course, we launched it. 43 days later, we pulled it.”
GeekWire · October 2026
Shaw recalls a meeting where Microsoft's leadership went round the table on whether to launch the Kin phone, which he privately doubted would work. He now says he should have framed his doubts as brand risk, which was squarely his job.
Transcript
…You know, I was new to the company. We had a meeting and it was at Mobile World Congress. We were in a hotel. We were in a big conference room at the top of the hotel. There were all the executives that are responsible for this thing sitting around the table. You know, Steve Ballmer was there.
Robbie Bach.
…with this. And I didn't think we were going to be successful with it because we were later to the market and it was going to be more expensive than people thought because it required a data plan. So that, and so I said, like, I don't think we're going to be successful with this. And so everybody went around the table. And Steve said, should we do this? Should we do this? Should we do this? And I did not say anything. And I didn't say anything because I couldn't figure out how it was in my area of expertise to have an opinion. I'm the comms guy. I'm not the business person. You know, I'm not the technology person. I'm not the partner person dealing with Verizon and others. Right. So I'm just, I just happened to be in the room, so I didn't say anything. And of course, we launched it 43 days later. We pulled it. You know, it cost us a lot of money with and bad will with Verizon. And I think about that, thought about that later. And I said, what I missed is that this…
What about Nokia? Were you in on those discussions? I'm sure you were.
Yes.
How do you feel about that in hindsight? And what did you think about it at the time?
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