Microsoft announces Dates For Kin Launch

Microsoft formally announced that its upcoming Kin One and Kin Two phones will be available online for pre-order starting on 6 May, with a Verizon in-store rollout to follow on 13 May. That comes days after a leaked internal report from Verizon suggested those dates for the launch.

The Kin One will retail for $49.99 (£33), after $100 mail-in rebate, and the Kin Two for $99.99. The phones have been geared towards a younger demographic presumably enamored of social networking, with applications and hardware designed to facilitate posting about life’s latest quirks. With its round shape, sliding QWERTY keyboard and touch-screen, the Kin One is heavily reminiscent of the Palm Pre; meanwhile, the Kin Two more resembles a traditional “candybar” phone, also with a retracting keyboard. The Kin One and Kin Two include 5.0-megapixel and 8.0-megapixel cameras, respectively.

Social Networking Phones

While Microsoft spokespeople have always confirmed that the phones would make an appearance in early May, a leaked screenshot of a Verizon internal report—first posted on Slashphone on 2 May, and then circulated on tech blogs such as Engadget—suggested the 6 May and 13 May dates. Verizon is the exclusive carrier of the Kin phones in the United States, while Vodafone will take over those duties when the devices hit the market in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom later in 2010.

Microsoft first unveiled the devices during a 12 April presentation in San Francisco, where Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, told the audience that “the sharing generation” was the Kin’s target demographic. The company likely hopes that the combination of Kin and the upcoming Windows Phone 7 will allow it to reverse its declining fortunes in the smartphone space.

Taking More Smartphone Market Share

While Kin has a chance to succeed if it only captures a relatively small portion of that market, a number of additional factors are also in play.

“Success will depend on how well Studio and Windows Live support integrate with the phone, and since only Microsoft can deploy a new service to the device, how well it does so is critical,” Jack Gold, principal analyst of J. Gold Associates, wrote in a 13 April research note. “Success will also depend on what types of service plans are available, how they’re priced and how good the service is (i.e., the AT&T/iPhone fiasco would be a killer for Kin). Finally, what specialised services will the carriers offer to try and garner some of the potential cloud revenue?”