Microsoft announces the Kin line of social networking phones

Microsoft's only foray into the mobile phone business was Windows Mobile, which has been a success. Yet, Windows Mobile has only been target at business users and power users. Soon, Microsoft bought Danger, one of the the partners that makes the T-Mobile Sidekick, a phone aimed at younger users.

Today, Microsoft has put Danger to use, by announcing the social networking based Kin line of phones. The Kin OS is based on the upcoming version of Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7. Two phones have been announced in the Kin line, the Kin One and Two.

Kin OS

As previously said before,  Kin's OS is based on WP7, but also aggregates many popular social networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Instead of the usual Windows Phone 7 home screen, it has been replaced by the Kin "Loop", which is the first thing you see when you unlock the Kin. It shows what your friends have been up to with status updates and tweets. Sadly, the Kin does not run third party applications. The browser in the Kin OS is also based on the browser that has been seen on the Zune HD. There are many elements of the Zune OS in Kin, which the service handles media playback on the Kin. There is also a cloud feature with Kin, called Kin Studio. This saves your media, contacts, and messages on a cloud. Which is a nice move on Microsoft's part, which could prevent another Sidekick disaster of 2009.  You can mostly do almost anything on the Kin, from the studio.

Kin One and Two

Kin One was leaked earlier in the year as "Turtle", today it was announced that the final name would be Kin One. The One has a Palm Pre like style, with a slide out horizontal keyboard. The screen is slightly smaller at 2.8 inches diagonally. Kin One comes with 4GB of on board storage. The camera is average for a phone that is aimed for this market, at 5 megapixel for stills, and SD video quality, along with an LED flash.

The Kin Two, has a bit better specs than the Kin One. The Kin Two shines in the camera department, with an 8 megapixel still camera, and records in HD for video, it also boasts the same LED flash as seem in the Kin One. The Two comes with 4 GB of more storage, having a total of 8GB.

So far, Verizon has announced that they will be the exclusive carrier in the US, while abroad Vodaphone will carry both Kin phones in Europe. Microsoft, Verizon, and Vodaphone have not announced pricing for both phones. Do you see the Kin taking off?

Offical page for the Kin: http://kin.com/

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/eric77lv