Microsoft's Kin is dead, and Verizon just put the final stake in the heart of the tawdry technological affair. According to Electronista, the company has opted to return all unsold Kin devices to Microsoft as of Monday. All online sales of the Kin One and Kin Two have been suspended, and Verizon is only offering accessories for either device at this point.

Such officially ends the Kin, which was rumored to only have sold around 9,000 units by the time of its departure. Although Daring Fireball's John Gruber puts the number at a far-lower 503, as sourced by an anonymous Microsoft employee to Business Insider's Jay Yarrow.

As we reported in late June, it was difficult to see a future for the Kin even given Verizon's support at the time—with the Microsoft Kin team disbanded, that wouldn't leave much in the way of resources for future device updates or other support options.

Just prior to Microsoft's disentanglement, Verizon had even chopped the price of the Kin One and Kin Two from approximately $50 and $100 to $30 and $50, respectively. And then, on June 30, the hammer fell via an official statement from Microsoft:

"We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we 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."

The news opened Microsoft up to some harsh criticism worldwide, as journalists, pundits and—yes—even employees weighed in on the details behind the death of the smartphone.

"It's one thing to incubate products and bring them to a proof-of-concept to see what works, but it's something else to launch," said one anonymous Microsoft employee to Yarrow. "I suspect we launched because we felt like we HAD to so we could save face because we were trying to build buzz, but overall - HUGE fail."

So what actually happened? Some critics blame the combination of a larger-than-expected startup cost and monthly pricing plan that just didn't fit the Kin's target audience. As well, the Kin didn't ship with support for third-party applications, which could have fixed some of the alleged difficulties found with its native social networking apps.

Or as PCMag.com's Sascha Segan put it, "The Kins are misbegotten, crippled creatures compared to pretty much every smartphone on the market. They've been priced as smartphones, with smartphone data plans, and they're being sold as smartphones, so the comparisons are fair."

As well, writes Techeye's Nick Farrell, Microsoft just didn't understand how to approach teens with the device. "Microsoft's 'kin marketing efforts were like watching your dad dancing at the school disco," he added.