Verizon debuts Microsoft's Kin social media phones

Verizon Wireless announced Microsoft's new Kin social media phones will be available online May 6, arriving at the operator's retail outlets a week later. The products of Microsoft's long-rumored Project Pink effort, the Kin One and Kin Two are designed expressly for mobile social networking and multimedia sharing--manufactured by Sharp, the touchscreen-based, camera-enabled Kin phones automatically bring together feeds from services including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter via the Kin Loop, an always-on homescreen UI that automatically prioritizes status updates, messages, feeds and photos from contacts identified by users as their favorite people. The cloud-based Kin Studio automatically backs up texts, call history, photos, videos and contacts, and presents images and video content in an online visual timeline; in addition, the Kin devices integrates with Microsoft's Zune digital media services and Bing web search services.

The Kin phones introduce a new version of Microsoft's mobile operating system, separate from both the current Windows Mobile 6.5 and the forthcoming Windows Phone 7. During a media presentation last month, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division president Robbie Bach said Kin incorporates some elements of Windows Phone 7 but adds a new interface layer. "If you are focused on social connection, self expression and a digital life, how do you bring that to a phone?" Bach said. "As we were working on Windows Phone 7, we decided we had an opportunity to go after this social group of people." Microsoft notes that the Kin phones will not offer access to its Windows Phone Marketplace application storefront, nor will consumers be given the latitude to customize which applications are available to them. Instead, Microsoft will push out periodic app updates to all Kin handsets, group product manager Roger Snyder told Forbes.

Verizon Wireless notes that after rebate, Kin One is available for $49.99, while the Kin Two (which adds HD video) is priced $99.99. The operator adds that customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan to maximize the Kin experience.

For more on the Kin launch:
- read this release

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