Farewell, Oink | Dann Berg

The Milk Team:

Oink was [Milk, Inc‘s] first test and, in preparing to move onto the next project, we’ve decided to shut it down to help focus our efforts.

Bravo to Kevin Rose for having the balls to shut down a product that just didn’t catch on.

Oink did not fail due to lack of brand/app awareness. You’d be hard pressed to find another app that was promoted and anticipated quite like Oink (except maybe the infamous Color). Between blog posts, articles, interviews, and coverage on almost every tech news channel, it was nearly impossible to miss the launch of Milk’s first app.

Instead, this is a perfect example of an app trying to fix a problem that just doesn’t exist. I used Oink for a few days, but it was too much work to really add Oink into my daily routine. The concept was great and there was real value, but not enough value to justify the cost of constantly using the app. There was not enough reward for opening up the app and checking the Oink updates, nor did I find enough incentive for sharing my “Oinks.” I must not have been alone, and Oink failed to really pick up steam once it was in the hands of consumers.

Despite Oink’s fate, I’m stoked to see what Milk is up to next. They’ve definitely mastered the art of app design and user experience and have proved that they aren’t afraid to pull the plug when things don’t work out as planned. I am definitely expecting great things from Milk.

EDIT: Or, maybe, Milk was just acquired/hired by Google, and Google didn’t care about their unsuccessful app, Oink.

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