Two months is an awfully short research project. Guess with results like the Kin, they saw the writing on the wall. Microsoft should have told Verizon they were just testing the waters.
I seem to remember reading that, among other things, Verizon ended up pulling the rug from under Microsoft so the Kin would require $60/mo plans instead of the $10/line/mo charge that would have been more common for a teen's phone.
The Kin's desktop software was widely praised by reviewers as a great way to organize things. But when the pricing put it in iPhone range instead of feature phone range, it had no chance.
